I recently heard that you shouldn,t use any plastic dishes or saran wrap around food being cooked in a microwa

Question

Heard that cancer causing chemicals, as dioxins , may be melted into food being microwaved in plastic or Saran wrap. Also that we shouldn't freeze water in plastic bottles, as this may put residue in the water. Does anybody have research that proves this? Also how about burning plasictic wrappers with paper trash in my shop furnace- does this emit dioxins? Worried about getting cancer as it seems to be so prevalent. Thanks. Ron

Answer 1

Here's a website I use when I don't know if something is true or not. snopes.com. I looked up your question, and they have a HUGE page answering your question. The answer is no.

Answer 2

I heard this as well but i am not letting it bother me.

I believe that it seems like everything causes cancer and that we are all going to die sooner or later so I might as well enjoy myself in the process. My grandmother is 80 years old and still alive and kicking it! She microwaves and uses plastic. She smoked for several years before quiting and has never been diagnosed with cancer nor does she so any signs of a serious illness.

If you are still concerned, don't use plastic, use microwave safe dishes or plates and avoid styrofoam as well.

Answer 3

its true. plastic contains chemicals that are relesed under certain conditons, such as: microwaves, freezers, burning, and baby diapers.
the chemicals in plastic have even been proven to make seagulls:(u wont belive it) homosexual, in studies geared toward learning more about these chemicals.

Answer 4

I wouldn't worry about the cooking and freezing but I would worry about the burning!

Answer 5

more complex there are some plastics that are safe contact your microwave manufacturer for list

Answer 6

Home --> Medical --> Toxin du jour --> Plastic-Tac-Toe


Plastic-Tac-Toe


Claim: Research has proved that microwaving foods in plastic containers releases cancer-causing agents into the foods.

Status: False.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2002]

Info for the Health Conscious

Dioxin Carcinogens causes cancer. Especially breast cancer. Don't freeze your plastic water bottles with water as this also releases dioxin in the Plastic.

On Channel 2 this morning. They had a Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle Hospital on the program. 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 heating food. You get the same results without the dioxins. So such things as TV dinners, instant saimin 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. 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.

Pass this on to your family and friends.

Variations:
In early 2004 the following paragraph was added to the beginning of the message quoted above:
Johns Hopkins Newsletter

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in their newsletters. This information is being circulated At Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Dioxin Carcinogens cause cancer. Especially breast cancer. Don't freeze plastic water bottles with water in them as this also releases dioxin from the plastic. Dr. Edward from Castle hospital was on a TV program explaining this health hazard. He is the manager....
In November 2004, this message was combined with another piece about the purported dangers of lead-containing lipstick.
Origins: This "health alert" began appearing in people's inboxes in February 2002; the "Channel 2" reference indicates it was someone's summarization of a short morning news health segment aired on KHON-TV in Hawaii on 23 January 2002, which was then forwarded all over the Internet as "important health information." One- or two-minute health spots on local news programs are not ideal sources of medical information, however. While important basic information can be imparted in such a format, trying to explicate complex medical topics in a minute or two can easily mislead or confuse viewers, many of whom come away believing absolutely whatever they've heard (or think they've heard) because "a doctor on TV said it was true" — in this case an unshakeable belief that using plastic containers in microwave ovens causes
cancer.

That a doctor (or, more accurately, someone bearing the title "Dr.") appears on TV does not mean he's a leading practitioner in his field; it generally means only that he has something to say that a news director considers newsworthy, accurate or not. (The "Dr. Edward Fujimoto" identified in this piece is not a staff physician from "Castle Hospital" or a medical doctor; he's a Ph.D. serving as director of the Center for Health Promotion at Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii.) What TV news covers is dictated by ratings, not importance, and sensational claims get better ratings than straightforward, mundane information, even if the latter is more valuable to the viewing audience. It's a pretty good assumption that if using plastic containers in microwaves — as millions of people have been doing for decades — posed a significant risk of cancer, you'd be hearing about it somewhere other than an e-mail forward of an anonymous summary of a morning news spot on a Hawaiian television station.

Is there really something to the central claim of this e-mail, that heating plastic in microwaves releases a cancer-causing agent into the food? It's within the realm of possibility that substances used during the manufacturing process of plastics could leak into food during the heating process, but research isn't conclusive about the potential for danger (if any) posed by such a phenomenon, and the FDA already imposes stringent regulations on plastic containers meant for microwaving as a preventive measure.

Dr. Rolf Halden of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health advises:
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. 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.
As for concerns about dioxins being released by freezing water in plastic bottles, Dr. Halden says:
This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, 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.
Several months after this piece began to circulate, it was merged with a similar item describing a seventh-grade student's science project:
As a seventh grade student, Claire Nelson learned that di-ethyl-hexyl-adepate (DEHA), considered a carcinogen, is found in plastic wrap. She also learned that the FDA had never studied the effect of microwave cooking on plastic-wrapped food. Claire began to wonder: "Can cancer-causing particles seep into food covered with household plastic wrap while it is being microwaved?"

Three years later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher, Claire set out to test what the FDA had not. Although she had an idea for studying the effect of microwave radiation on plastic-wrapped food, she did not have the equipment. Eventually, Jon Wilkes at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas, agreed to help her. The research center, which is affiliated with the FDA, let her use its facilities to perform her experiments, which involved microwaving plastic wrap in virgin olive oil. Claire tested four different plastic wraps and "found not just the carcinogens but also xenoestrogen was migrating [into the oil]...." Xenoestrogens are linked to low sperm counts in men and to breast cancer in women.

Throughout her junior and senior years, Claire made a couple of trips each week to the research center, which was 25 miles from her home, to work on her experiment.

An article in Options reported that "her analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million. The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion." Her summarized results have been published in science journals. Claire Nelson received the American Chemical Society's top science prize for students during her junior year and fourth place at the International Science and Engineering Fair (Fort Worth, Texas) as a senior. "Carcinogens-At 10,000,000 Times FDA Limits" Options May 2000. Published by People Against Cancer, 515-972-4444.

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 a paper towel instead.
This gist of this latter addition is true in that a student named Claire Nelson did perform the experiment described for a school science fair project back in 1997 (she came up with the idea for the project while she was in seventh grade, but as noted, she didn't actually conduct the experiment until three years later) by working with an FDA-affiliated laboratory. Like the Fujimoto piece, however, the claims made in this version tend towards the alarmist: the results of the experiment described tended to indicate that diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA) and xenoestrogens could migrate from plastic wraps into microwaved food (specifically olive oil, the "food" used in the experiment), but only with some brands of plastic wrap (primarily ones not sold as "microwave-safe") and only when the plastic wrap was in direct contact with the food being heated; moreover, no research has yet demonstrated that DEHA poses a significant cancer risk to humans at the levels noted here (even though they exceed FDA standards) or that xenoestrogens are a direct cause of breast cancer in women or reduced sperm counts in men.

Additional information:
Cooking Safely in the Microwave Oven
(USDA)
Cooking with Plastics
(Johns Hopkins University)
Last updated: 31 December 2005


The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2006
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission.

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Sources:
Burros, Marian. "Good Health Habits Can Reduce Risks of Hazards in Food."
The New York Times. 9 May 1990 (p. C1).

Hahn, Jon. "A Bad Rap for Microwaving Food?"
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 8 January 2002 (p. E2).

Lehourites, Chris. "Grade 7 Girl's Radiant Idea Leads to Top Science Prize."
The Toronto Star. 21 May 2000.

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