Breakthroughs Today

It is wiser to avoid taking in bisphenol A (BPA) through food than wait for a human study that proves it definitely toxic. At the same time, it is also to our advantage as consumers to know which plastics to avoid as food containers simply because it contains BPA, or at least used it in its manufacturing process. EARLY this year we knew of the piece of legislation—Senate Bill 3121—that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago submitted for deliberation that aimed to prohibit the use of plastics containing BPA in manufacturing baby products. But like diseases and drugs, plastics are not created equal. There are plastics that are not manufactured in a way that it becomes likely for them to contain BPA. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) identified these plastics as those “marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.” It also noted that since 1957, BPA has been used to manufacture hard plastic food containers such as baby bottles and reusable cups, not to

Knowledge often supports wisdom. In the harmful impacts of certain plastic types, knowledge alone makes you a lot wiser. WITH the increasing support that local lawmakers provide on the move against plastic as used in bags, another assault on the move against plastic in its use as bottles and containers for food and food products is up. Senator Miriam Santiago filed a few months earlier Senate Bill No. 3121, which when approved into law, will become as the BPA in Baby Products Prohibition Act of 2012. The culprit is the chemical referred to as BPA or Bisphenol A, a solid but colorless organic compound. It is synthetically manufactured precursor chemical used in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The polycarbonate plastics are the ones used in the production of many food and drink bottles and containers, such as water bottles and infant feeding bottles. Epoxy resins practically lacquers used in coating metal products such as food cans, bottle tops, and water supply pipes.

To some organisms in nature, even a diaper waste can be raw materials for human food. APPARENTLY there are two current problems that used diapers can help solve: reduction of urban solid waste and availability of high protein food sources. Or so it seems, as what four Mexican researchers from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana found out. But used diapers cannot do it all alone. They need a fungus commonly known as oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) to perform biodegradation on the disposable diaper materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and a superabsorbent polymer. Its main component, however, is cellulose, a plant structural material that degrades slowly. Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic today. It is primarily used in packaging materials such as plastic bag. While polypropylene is the more heat-stable kind. It is used in plastic parts and automotive components.  It only takes... [ Read more. ]   This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 25 May