[pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 34, Issue 112

[greg mushial]

> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:46:14 -0700
> From: Brick Robbins <brick at brickrobbins.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] trail cooking
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
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> <AANLkTi=v8eDLfQtt92-n8ET57DWcpgnw4K-osYZhyRog at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 4:01 PM, greg mushial <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:
>> Firstly: I do not wish to rain on anyone's parade... ?but I'm wondering 
>> if
>> one really wants to be doing this. Personally I came to the conclusion 
>> that,
>> at least for myself, no I do not. The question has to do with leaching of
>> human-unfriendly chemicals from the plastics.
>
> There are lots of different plastics. Lumping them all together shows
> a general lack of understanding of the issue.

Sorry you're having a bad day...   but actually yes I'm aware that there are 
many mnay different type of plastics - but the more I read the more it seems 
that a large collection of them all leach unfriendly chemicals, hence my 
choice of wording.  ;-)

>
> The current worries are the estrogenic chemicals Bisphenol A and
> various phthalates. I think the "PBA" you quoted was probably intended
> to be BPA.

Just washed my hands and can't do a thing with them ...  yes, BPA   :-) 
and yes, the pseudo estrogens were why Canada banned BPA use in food 
contacting plastics, high temp and low (or conversely: banned the use of 
plastics containing BPA for food use). Likewise Germany - though their 
concerns seemed to more than just BPA.

>
> Ziplock bags are made of LDPE and contain neither phthalates nor BPA.

True...  but again, there are various warnings out there about not putting 
hot food in ziplocks - seems the general recommendation is to let hot foods 
cool before storing...   but again, I come from the math/physics side of the 
house, as such, no I don't follow which chemicals are being leached, but do 
note the warnings. And again, from journals, not from the "everything is 
dangerous" crowd.

>
> Probably the biggest exposure you will get to BPA would be from cans
> of soda, beer and food, that almost always have a plastic liner in the
> inside, from your polycarbonate Nalgene bottle, and from handling the
> thermal paper receipts you get when you buy stuff in town.

In my case, probably the soda cans - what's code writing w/o Mtn Dew; don't 
use nalgenes any more - too heavy.

>
> The clear PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) water bottles that most
> people seem to use now contain phthalates, and may leach more when
> they are exposed to the sun, or bounced around causing small hairline
> fractures

I'm probably guilty there in that I converted over to gatorade bottles - but 
again, that's a cold water leaching exposure, not 100C.

>
> I suppose you could carry your water in glass bottles.

;-)  sounds like a foolish way to carry water  ;-)

But let's try again - I started my post with "I don't wish to rain on 
anyone's parade"... etc, ie, I'm just suggesting that if people make 
choices, they make informed choices...  when one does a google "plastic 
leaching boiling water" one get too many hits to simply ignore the issues... 
on the otherhand, maybe after reading a couple dozen one concludes that the 
risk is acceptable. Much like: does one go UL or merely L - one does their 
research, and makes their choices.

TheDuck