Toxins in food packaging

don't eat anything, you can starve to death with a pure mind and body.

This has been know for years. We are all exposed by breathing air, digging in our gardens, eating food and drinking water. At this time in our history you can't escape it. You can help your family by avoiding some toxins/pesticides by buying organic and keeping your home free of industrial chemicals that arrive in the form of standard cleaning products, air scents, lead based paints, wall to wall carpeting, furniture stain protectors etc.

However, most pollutants are everywhere and they drift in from many places. We've made some progress with clean water acts, tackling super fund sites and regulating dirty industries like coal, gas and steel. The Bush administration has been desperately trying to lessen these laws, and I dread the last days of the administration when it will be an orgy of dirty give-a-ways to the corporate lobbyists. I hope the future administration (no matter who it is) will realize that we don't want an environmental policy based on the Chinese model and will get us back on track.

In the meantime, avoid factory farmed food, commercial cleaning supplies, toys/dishware from China and breathing while stuck in traffic.

I'm not talking about pollutants in the air and water, I'm talking about toxins in food packaging, like Saran Wrap and tin foil, paper and cardboard. I know it's in plastics, but didn't realize it was so prevalent in packaging.

Even eating organic doesn't save you from pollutants and poisons - they're in the water and atmosphere. But it is better as there are no pesticides.

Disguting what we're doing to ourselves. I've wondered for years what, if anything, is safe to eat and come to the conclusion that nothing is. I think Dys is right.

actually I think life itself is toxic and I'm damn sure human beings are toxic. Only thing I can offer is about the same as what we discovered about sun and skin cancer; you don't refuse to go out in the sun but you do learn to wear a hat, use sun screens, avoid the 50's black as night sun tans.

ndoor tanning is big business, with tanning trade publications reporting this as a $2 billion-a-year industry in the United States. According to industry estimates, 28 million Americans are tanning indoors annually at about 25,000 tanning salons around the country. In fact, a recent study of more than 10,000 teens across the US found that tanning bed use was increasing, especially among adolescent girls.

This does not bode well for the health of the nation. In 1994, a Swedish study found that women 18-30 years old who visited tanning parlors 10 times or more a year had seven times greater incidence of melanoma than women who did not use tanning salons. In another study, people exposed to 10 full-body tanning salon sessions had a significant increase in skin repair proteins typically associated with sun damage, indicating that ultraviolet (UV) radiation from indoor tanning is as dangerous as UV from the sun. And in 2002, a study from Dartmouth Medical School found that tanning device users had 2.5 times the risk of squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times the risk of basal cell carcinoma . And yet, even with all this evidence, the tanning salons remain unrepentant.

You know, I just don't want to be the oldest one in the retirement home.

I eat everything!

I suggest you read 'Slow Death By Rubber Duck' by Rick smith and Bruce Lourie. The book is based on experiments they perform on themselves to test the impact the every day toxins we're exposed to have on their bodies- including comparisons between ingesting organic, "safely packaged" food and the mass produced plastic wrapped products you seem to be worried about. I think it might be able to answer some of your questions.

I have read that there are three of the most toxic plastic chemicals found in plastic food packaging are BPA, PVC and Phthalates. Getting rid of bad plastic in your kitchen is one thing, but dealing with plastic food packaging is quite another. Am I right?

Any plastic made from PVC should not be heated while in contact with food products. PVC can release chloride when heated that can be harmful.

This is very true, PVC does release chloride and is not recommended to be heated up when in direct contact with food products!

Maybe if the manufacturers are forced to use paper or edible packaging, then it could improve the health benefits to some extent.