Hi,
My friend visited me this weekend and she told me that they are no longer using plastic in their dishwasher or microwave because it is not safe.
So we started looking on the bottom of all my plastic things, and inside the recycling triangle is a number.
She said 1,2 and 5 were the safest, 4 was the most dangerous and 7 was also bad.
All my Gerber baby food containers have a 7 on them. I was shocked and of course, alarmed!
Does anyone know for sure what these numbers mean?
Is the babyfood container not safe to microwave because the plastic can be harmful to our health?
I haven't ever heard about this concern, but I don't want to be negligent if this is something I should be more aware of.
I know there are very smart mommies out there who will know the answer to this unusual question!
TIA!
I don't know about the specific numbers, but I do know that excessive use of plastic storage containers used for food is not as good for us as we thought. Please go to this website to read more: http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/11-09/chemicals-plasti...
I have heard, and read - when you heat up plastic it omits toxins; never cook or eat out of anything that has been cooked in plastic if you are able to. I know that is hard - but materials that are used to make plastic are toxic when heated up. Makes you wonder why "some" of the baby food is in jars and some of the purest organics are found in glass containers. Same goes for drinking out of plastic containers. I am not saying I don't use plastic - sometimes, the plastic convenience is the easy and most efficient means of eating and drinking - but where you can, try to modify you behavior. I do.
OK, that is just a rumor. I'm sorry the food and drug administration would not allow food to be placed in containers that were not safe for consumption. Do you really think that they would advertise that they are using low grade plastic to store baby food in?
The numbers represent the type of resin that the plastic consists of. 7 is equivalent to a combination of plastics rather than a pure resin. This number is used by the recycling plant to properly recycle the item. That is the reason it is contained in the recycling arrows.
http://www.plasticsmythbuster.org/numbers.asp
http://americanplasticscouncil.org/s_apc/sec.asp?TRACKID=...
I hope this helps!
Jodi
I always check things out on snopes first. It may help you to know that plastic does NOT let off toxins when heated in the microwave, so don't worry when you're heating your food. I remember hearing that back in my college days thinking that was cooky. Check it out on snopes at
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp
You've received a lot of great information. Bottomline is that SOME plastics are not as safe as others to "reheat" or "cook" in. In fact, there are very FEW plastics that you can actually "cook" in for the microwave safely. "Reheat" generally speaks to food that is in the microwave for under 10 minutes and most of the time less than 5 minutes. "Cook" generally speaks to food that is in the microwave for 10 or more minutes.
If you want to be especially safe for you and your family, you can use Tupperware products that specially designed for the different uses in the microwave. There are products in the line that are safe for REHEATING and there are products in the line that are safe for COOKING in the microwave. Tupperware actually offers a Microwave Oval Cooker that you can COOK an entire Chicken in about 15 minutes and it comes out juicy and delicious.
Anyway, I am not only an interested and concerned consumer, but I became even more educated on the subject when I started selling Tupperware.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. Hope this helps. Take care. Many Blessings - L.
www.my.tupperware.com/LauraShepherd
____@____.com
wow, you all are a bevy of info! all i knew was that 1,2,3,4,5 and 7 were things you can recycle in dallas and 6 you cannot. i've gotten very good at i.d.-ing a '6' just by touch, now. :-)
Have you tried going to the city of Dallas web-site? They are now running their recycling campaign, so they may have more information on this. Good luck! Now I am concerned as well...
Having children who are now older and having dealt with health issues related to toxins, I tend to be fairly cautious about using plastic, particularly in the microwave.
Here's info from Mercola.com on this topic, which doesn't have the biases that the FDA or plastics council might:
http://www.mercola.com/2005/jul/5/food_storage.htm
With the following summarizing, what is considered safer if you choose to use plastic:
" If you feel you have to use plastic, choose items that contain one of the following materials, none of which are known to leach harmful substances:
Polypropylene, designated "#5 PP"
High-density polyethylene, designated "#2HDPE"
Low-density polyethylene, designated "#4 LDPE"
"
So, I would recommend transferring the food from other numbered containers into a glass or ceramic container for heating in the microwave. I personally would stick with the baby foods in glass jars, ideally the organic ones. Unfortunately, our kids are growing up in a very toxic environement and we can reduce their toxic load by feeding them organic as much as possible.
