I just got this e-mail from a friend today. Does anyone here know if it is actually true? If it is, I should be a walking tumor by now!

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A seventh grade student, Claire Nelson learned that di(ethylhexyl)adepate (DEHA), considered a carcinogen, is found in plastic wrap. She also learned that the FDA had never studied the effect of microwave cooking on plastic-wrapped food. Claire began to wonder: "Can cancer-causing particles seep into food covered with household plastic wrap while it is being microwaved?"

Three years later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher, Claire set out to test what the FDA had not. Although she had an idea for studying the effect of microwave radiation on plastic-wrapped food, she did not have the equipment. Eventually, Jon Wilkes at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas, agreed to help her.

The research center, which is affiliated with the FDA, let her use its facilities to perform her experiments, which involved micro waving
plastic wrap in virgin olive oil. Claire tested four different plastic wraps and "found not just the carcinogens but also xenoestrogen was migrating into the oil". Xenoestrogens are linked to low sperm counts in men and to breast cancer in women.

Throughout her junior and senior years, Claire made a couple of trips
each week to the research center, which was 25 miles from her home, to work on her experiment. An article in Options reported that "her analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million.

The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion." Her summarized results have been published in science journals. Claire Nelson received the American Chemical Society's top science prize for students during her junior year and fourth place at the International Science and Engineering Fair (Fort Worth,Texas) as a senior. "Carcinogens -- At 10,000,000 Times FDA Limits" Options May 2000. Published by People Against Cancer,515-972-4444.

On Channel 2 (Huntsville, AL) this morning they had a Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle Hospital on the program. He is the manager of the Wellness Program at the hospital. He was talking about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxins into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Dioxins are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells of our bodies.

Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results without the dioxins. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramin and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. Just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He said we might remember when some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

To add to this: Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with the high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food. Use paper towel instead.
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Not much of a chemist here, but I have to wonder if PVC (Polly Vinal Chloride) (SP?) is used in any of this plastic. When I was a firefighter in the early 80's we were informed that PVC when heated let off a poisonous gas that when inhaled could cause a heart attack. If PVC can do that in large doses when heated I can imagine what small doses can do. I think there might be something to her theory.
Thanks for the post.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-Aug-02 AT 01:09 AM (EST)]I just read something about this too. Interseting topic AFTER all these years of using plastic wrap!

Ah well, life is fatal too.

 

[link:www.tafkac.org/ulz/plastic.html|Microwaving With Plastic]



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urbanlegends.com says it's scaremail, combining some truth with fiction. Read more about it [link:www.tafkac.org/ulz/plastic.html|here]

Edit: LOL! Dennis, you beat me to it!

 

I sent this to a friend down south who told me there is no channel 2 in Huntsville AL.

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This is more junk science at best. Xenoestrogens are not inherent in the plastic but originate from the olive oil, therefore their presence is not the result of the plastic but from oil conversion during nuking. So what if there are 10XXX more than FDA limits. The original 'limits' are merely empirically derived numbers since no one has any idea what a 'safe' level even is. Dioxins? Yawn...dioxins are also found naturally in dirt, beach sand and about everywhere else humans roam, they are in core samples that date back long before mankind was around. Note the headline from the PAC group and you know they are only interested in scaring people to advance their cause-not in reporting any real scientific findings.

 

After thinking about it for a day, I have to agree with you guys that it is just a scare tactic. If there was any truth to it, we would have heard about it from the news/media by now--I know I can trust them guys!