Does anything NOT cause cancer?
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive January 2005:
Does anything NOT cause cancer?
http://www.nofluoride.com/newsweek.htm
Gee they make us scared to eat or drink
anything these days. What is a person to do?
I was given liquid floride as a child (we had well water) and my mom thinks that's why my teeth are now stained, although the stains have really lightened thanx to White Strips.  While I do think there are some things that are proven to cause cancer (like tabacco), no matter what we do someone will find some link to cancer causing agents. Heck, you could even argue that even organically grown food may cause cancer because there *might* be something in the soil they were grown in! All we can do is avoid the obvious and try to be as healthy as possible. Haven't some recent studies shown that there may be a cancer gene? I thought I'd read that somewhere. I'll have to look it up.
Btw, my dad quit smoking after 40+ years to reduce his risk of lung cancer. Not five years later he died from pancreatic cancer (totally unrelated to smoking).
So sorry he died Cat.
It is just crazy how all you hear these
days is about things tht may cause cancer.
Why don't we all just live in a plastic bubble!
lol
Oh geez! So, when are we going to die of cancer from breathing???
Yes, it seems like every time you turn around, something else you have been consuming or been exposed to your entire life will now *cause cancer*. Even sunscreen, for heaven's sake!
I can remember when my kids were young, the dentist and the ped. were telling us to give them fluoride treatments, unless of course, our local water was fluoridated, which it IS.
Cat, my mom smoked for 50 years, HEAVY smoker 2-3 packs a day, she quit 6 or 7 years ago, then 3 years ago was diagnosed with lung cancer. First cancer in our family tree, other than skin cancer.
I have heard about testing to determine a cancer gene. I don't know if it's *FDA approved*, or in use or what, but if so, that's something I think a LOT of us would be interested in having done. But then, if you *do* carry a cancer gene, what do you do about it???? Do you worry day in and day out over which cancer you will get, and when? Would there be something you can do to prevent it? This is a whole other can of worms.
And, FYI, depending on the direction this thread takes, I *might* move it to the Debate Board. We'll watch and see.......
OK, did anyone see that the article is from Feb. of 1990!!! This is 2005! Where's the current research and what does it support?
ADA
The ADA website addresses many fluoride topics.
Ame
Here's a column by Ellen Goodman about the mixed messages we get about what is good/bad for us. I love Ellen Goodman's writing in general, and this column is funny and to the point.
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/good0112.htm
I just received this one in a email...wonder how true it is?
JOHN HOPKINS CANCER NEWS
>>
>> No plastics in micro
>> No water bottles in freezer.
>> No plastic wrap in micro
>>
>> Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in their newsletters worth
>> noting... This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army
>> Medical Center.
>>
>> Dioxin Carcinogens cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Don't
>> freeze
>> your plastic water bottles with water as this also releases dioxins in
>> the
>> plastic.
>>
>> Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle hospital was on a TV program
>> explaining
>> this health hazard. (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 heat! ng food. You get the same results,
>> without
>> the dioxins. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen 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. It's
>> 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 towels.
>>
>> Pass this on to your family & friends & those that
>> are important in you life
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/plastic.htm
June 24, 2004
Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water Bottles
Rolf Halden, PhD, PE
The Internet has been flooded with email warnings to avoid freezing water in plastic bottles so as not to get exposed to carcinogenic dioxins. Recently, one hoax email has been attributed to Johns Hopkins University. The Office of Communications and Public Affairs discussed the issue with Rolf Halden, PhD, PE, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center for Water and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Halden received his masters and doctoral degrees researching dioxin contamination in the environment. We sat down with him to set the record straight on dioxins in the food supply and the risks associated with drinking water from plastic bottles and cooking with plastics.
Office of Communications and Public Affairs: What are dioxins?
Rolf Halden: Dioxins are organic environmental pollutants sometimes referred to as the most toxic compounds made by mankind. They are a group of chemicals, which include 75 different chlorinated molecules of dibenzo-p-dioxin and 135 chlorinated dibenzofurans. Some polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) also are referred to as dioxin-like compounds. Exposure to dioxins can cause chloracne, a severe form of skin disease, as well as reproductive and developmental effects, and more importantly, liver damage and cancer.
OC&PA: Where do dioxins come from?
RH: We always thought dioxins were man-made compounds produced inadvertently during the bleaching of pulp and manufacturing of pesticides like Agent Orange and other chlorinated aromatics. But dioxins in sediments from lakes and oceans predate these human activities. It is now generally accepted that a principal source of dioxins are various combustion processes, including natural events such as wild fires and even volcanic eruptions.
Today, the critical issue is the incineration of waste, particularly the incineration of hospital waste, which contains a great deal of polyvinyl chloride plastics and aromatic compounds that can serve as dioxin precursors. One study examined the burning of household trash in drums in the backyard. It turns out that these small burnings of debris can put out as much or more dioxins as a full-sized incinerator burning hundreds of tons of refuse per day. The incinerators are equipped with state-of-the-art emission controls that limit dioxin formation and their release into the environment, but the backyard trash burning does not. You set it ablaze and chemistry takes over. What happens next is that the dioxins are sent into the atmosphere where they become attached to particles and fall back to earth. Then they bind to, or are taken up, by fish and other animals, where they get concentrated and stored in fat before eventually ending up on our lunch and dinner plates. People are exposed to them mostly from eating meat and fish rich in fat.
OC&PA: What do you make of this recent email warning that claims dioxins can be released by freezing water in plastic bottles?
RH: No. This is an urban legend. Freezing actually works against the release of chemicals. Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold temperatures, which would limit chemical release if there were dioxins in plastic, and we don’t think there are.
OC&PA: So it’s okay for people to drink out of plastic water bottles?
RH: First, people should be more concerned about the quality of the water they are drinking rather than the container it’s coming from. Many people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water, so they buy bottled water instead. The truth is that city water is much more highly regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many things we would not tolerate in municipal drinking water.
Having said this, there is another group of chemicals, called phthalates that are sometimes added to plastics to make them flexible and less brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants that can exhibit hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine disruptors in humans and animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase the leaching of phthalates from the containers into water and food.
OC&PA: What about cooking with plastics?
RH: In general, whenever you heat something you increase the likelihood of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released from plastic packaging materials like the kinds used in some microwave meals. Some drinking straws say on the label “not for hot beverages.” Most people think the warning is because someone might be burned. If you put that straw into a boiling cup of hot coffee, you basically have a hot water extraction going on, where the chemicals in the straw are being extracted into your nice cup of coffee. We use the same process in the lab to extract chemicals from materials we want to analyze.
If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic utensils, the best thing to do is to follow the directions and only use plastics that are specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are best, for example heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old stainless steel.
OC&PA: Is there anything else you want to add?
RH: Don’t be afraid of drinking water. It is very important to drink adequate amounts of water and, by the way that’s in addition to all the coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume. Unless you are drinking really bad water, you are more likely to suffer from the adverse effects of dehydration than from the minuscule amounts of chemical contaminants present in your water supply. Relatively speaking, the risk from exposure to microbial contaminants is much greater than that from chemicals.
And here’s one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us already carries a certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and what we eat. If you look hard enough, you’ll find traces of dioxins in pretty much every place on earth. Paracelsus the famous medieval alchemist, used to put it straight and simple: it’s the dose that makes the poison.--Tim Parsons
Public Affairs media contacts for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Tim Parsons or Kenna Lowe at 410-955-6878 or paffairs@jhsph.edu.
Sorry about the two posts, but I was drinking my water that I just pulled out of the freezer when I saw your post!!
Thanks I wanted to check it out but couldn't remember the site.
My hubby is a chemical engineer in a plastics plant. He said to me many years ago. If it isn't made for heating food don't use it, for exactly that reason. Most of my friends are so bad at saving margarine containers, etc to store food and the reheat. Also one of my favs is corn wrapped in saran wrap to cook in the microwave Anyway, he said just make sure you read and make sure thing are micro safe, if they are you can be assured they have been tested for not just if they will stand out, but what leeches out into our food. One of his jobs is water tasting, they make bottles and fill with water, let them set for a day and then do a taste test, different plastics do affect how things taste. They funny part of this is he knows what that taste is and can recognize it so there are certain brands of milk he won't drink because they taste that way (not that they are bad, just taste bad to him)
Kaye, thanks for your post. I do the same with corn on the cob, and will look for a microwave safe plastic wrap before I do it again. In fact, a lot of times I will cover a glass container with plastic wrap to heat in the microwave, so I will really, REALLY, look for microwave safe plastic wrap.
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