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On our buses we use Brita filters. My production manager estimates we save
between 200 and 250 bottles each show, and up to 96 bottles every day on the
buses. We are one of several tours that we know of who are making these kinds of
changes.
There are also some venues and festivals that are eliminating single-use
plastics. Living in Los Angeles, I had long believed that having one's own
sealed water bottle was safer than trusting the municipal water supply.
My children grew up drinking from plastic water bottles. But not long ago I
heard a radio programme that dispelled that myth, and a few others, including
the viability of recycling all the plastic bottles produced every year.
Most of the bottled water sold as spring water in America is, in fact, tap
water. There don't seem to be any legal barriers to selling what comes out of a
pipe in New Jersey or Los Angeles as spring water, or mountain water, or Arctic
water, at least not in the United States.
There is far more quality control of American water supplies by municipalities
than is exercised by the companies that bottle tap water and sell it to us for
as much 200 times its value.
As for the designer water that is shipped from Fiji or France or Sweden all over
the world, using jet or diesel fuel – this only adds to the amount of oil that
is used by the plastic bottled water industry.
It takes one third of a bottle of petroleum to manufacture a single plastic
bottle. Add to that the cost in petro-miles of shipping it around the world and
you have what is still accepted as a legitimate business expense, though it may
eventually be seen as a crime.
The amount of oil used to produce plastic is the same amount as the oil that is
spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling rig
Getting people to accept the premise that only the water from pristine and
exotic locations is truly clean may be a marketing triumph, but it is a human
health disaster.
The health issue with plastic bottles is that they are made with Bisphenol A or
BPA, a known 'endocrine disruptor', which can mimic the body's hormones and can
have side effects.
BPA is used to make the plastic hard and clear, and it was developed originally
as a sex hormone drug until that use was discontinued for reasons of human
health and safety.
BPA leaches out of the bottles into the liquids they contain, in amounts that
are claimed to be safe by the plastics industry. But last year experts from five
universities - London, Plymouth, Reading, Stirling and Ulster - urged the
British Government to review BPA.
In a letter to the Health Secretary, they wrote: 'The major
body of research and evidence presented over the last decade strengthens the
growing consensus that low-level exposure to BPA has a significant impact on
increasing the risks of developing conditions such as cancer, diabetes, impaired
brain function, and behavioral problems in mammalian laboratory animals.'
Britain has not enacted any changes yet, but Japan has limited levels of BPA in
tins and has removed it from plastic containers used by children.
Canada has listed BPA as a toxic chemical and banned it from baby bottles, and
there are efforts in America, France and Australia to restrict or ban the use of
BPA from children's bottles, cups and plates.
But let's go back to what is happening to the word's oceans. Most of us have
heard by now that there is a 'floating island of rubbish in the Pacific Ocean
twice the size of Texas', or some variation of that.
But it's not an island, and it's not something that can be cleaned up or somehow
recycled. In fact, what is happening in the Pacific is happening in all five of
the planet's ocean gyres – as the systems of currents are called.
And it's not really rubbish. It is plastic. It is breaking down into ever
smaller pieces, but it can never biodegrade. In parts of the Pacific this
plastic outweighs plankton seven to one.
Fish mistake it for food and eat it. And we eat the fish. We are poisoning
ourselves, and destroying the ocean. This is done in the name of free
enterprise, unregulated markets, the right to do business and the right to make
a profit – and in the name of convenience, evidently the most precious freedom
we have.
The plastics industry insists that all we have to do is recycle. But why should
we bear the cost and responsibility of recycling it? Why should we buy the stuff
and then pay to dispose of it? In the case of the oceans, we will never be able
to clean them up faster than the rate plastic is going in.
The answer is to stop producing it, to stop buying it. A few years ago I was on
a remote beach in Spain and spent the day cleaning it up with another guy there,
a German. It was mostly plastic. He muttered that the locals didn't appreciate
the natural beauty of the place.
Both of us assumed it had been thrown away there carelessly, perhaps dumped
there. But now I don't think so. I can see now that it had all washed up there.
Humans are slobs.
There's no way around it. We are slobs. I know surfers who travel the world and
ride the planet's most remote waves. They say there are plastic bottles washing
up in Antarctica, in Patagonia, and all of the most distant and pristine beaches
in the world.
What are we doing? There are laws against defiling the public places in our
cities. Where are the laws that protect our public planet, our commonly held
wilderness, our oceans?
Our oceans without which we certainly will perish? I had occasion to remark at
my show at the Royal Albert Hall in London that we are the oil spill, and it is
up to us to provide a solution to the problem. And that the more I have become
used to carrying a metal bottle, the easier it is to just fill my own bottle and
take it with me.
One thing we can do is to exercise our power as consumers, and to make choices
that serve the interests of our families and of future generations, and the
health of the planet.
Bisphenol-A, a toxic chemical used to make baby bottles, plastic water
bottles, and food and beverage can liners, has been linked to heart disease and
diabetes. Even so, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insists that the
chemical is fine for use by infants, children and adults.
BPA, an artificial sex hormone, has produced irreversible damage in test
animals. It has been under fire from environmentalists, scientists, and,
increasingly, concerned moms.
The FDA, the federal agency charged with regulating food safety, has argued that
BPA can continue to be used in consumer products. The agency cites 2 studies
indicating that the chemical is safe, despite the fact that both studies were
funded by the chemical industry.
Environmental Working Group, the consumer watchdog research institute, says,
"The FDA has refused to take into serious consideration more than 100
independent animal studies suggesting the toxic chemical could be linked to
serious disorders in humans, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes,
early puberty, obesity and learning and behavioral problems."
University of Missouri research scientist Frederick Vom Saal today released one
of the most comprehensive studies ever published on BPA. The study links heart
disease and diabetes to continual, low-dose exposure to BPA -- exactly the kind
of exposure you would get from drinking canned sodas regularly or drinking
regularly from plastic bottles.
In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
scientists report a strong correlation between levels of BPA in American adults
and these diseases, both of which are increasing.
"These startling results only increase the urgency of removing BPA from products
used by young children," said EWG senior scientist Anila Jacob M.D., M.P.H. "If
the adult population in the U.S. is seeing links between this toxic chemical and
heart disease and diabetes, imagine what impact much higher exposure levels are
having on babies whose bodies are just developing."
The National Toxicology Program, an arm of the National Institutes of Health,
has asserted that it has "some concern" for BPA's negative impact on
"development of the prostate gland and brain and for behavioral effects in
fetuses, infants and children."
"If this weren't so serious, it would be laughable," said EWG VP for Research,
Jane Houlihan. "Here we have an agency that time and again makes the wrong call
on everything from pharmaceuticals, tomatoes and toothpaste, and we're supposed
to take them at their word over a toxic sex hormone found in baby products."
Until state or federal laws outlaw BPA in consumer products, you can protect
yourself by:
•minimizing your consumption of canned food and canned beverages, as BPA may be
used to line the cans; choose fresh or frozen food and bottled juices instead.
•buying only water bottles or baby bottles that explicitly say they are
BPA-Free.
•using glass baby bottles and reusable water bottles made from stainless steel
or aluminum.
•avoiding plastic food and beverage containers that are made with #7 plastic;
you should see the number in a triangle on the bottom of the bottle.
This Bill Moyers Journal segment offers great background on Bisphenol-A:
Which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals?
Choose your water bottles very carefully in order to prevent chemicals in the
plastic from leaching into your water.
Plastic water bottles are very convenient for carting water around when we are
on the go, as they don’t break if we drop them. However, it is worth paying
attention to the type of plastic your water bottle is made of, to ensure that
the chemicals in the plastic do not leach into the water. If you taste plastic,
you are drinking it, so get yourself another bottle.
To be certain that you are choosing a bottle that does not leach, check the
recycling symbol on your bottle. If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene),
or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene), your bottle
is fine.
The type of plastic bottle in which water is usually sold is usually a #1, and
is only recommended for one time use. -Do not refill it- . Better to use a
reusable water bottle, and fill it with your own filtered water from home and
keep these single-use bottles out of the landfill.
Unfortunately, those fabulous colourful hard plastic lexan bottles made with
polycarbonate plastics and identified by the #7 recycling symbol, may leach BPA.
Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen, a known endocrine disruptor, meaning it disturbs
the hormonal messaging in our bodies. Synthetic xenoestrogens are linked to
breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men,
and are particularly devastating to babies and young children. BPA has even been
linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. Nalgene, the company that
manufactures the lexan water bottles also makes #2 HDPE bottles in the same
sizes and shapes, so we have a viable alternative.
Unfortunately, most plastic baby bottles and drinking cups are made with
plastics containing Bisphenol A. In 2006 Europe banned all products made for
children under age 3 containing BPA, and as of Dec. 2006 the city of San
Franscisco followed suit. In March 2007 a billion-dollar class action suit was
commenced against Gerber, Playtex, Evenflo, Avent, and Dr. Brown’s in Los
Angeles superior court for harm done to babies caused by drinking out of baby
bottles and sippy cups containing BPA. So, to be certain that your baby is not
exposed, use glass bottles.
Check the recycling numbers on all your plastic food containers as well, and
gradually move to storing all food in glass or ceramic. Store water in glass or
brass if possible, and out of direct sunlight.
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