nuking by numbers

My husband was startled recently as he caught me in the kitchen holding a plastic container of leftover Tom Khar Gung soup over my head while I squinted up at the bottom of it. He inquired as to what in the world I was doing. My usual state of being environmentally freaked out rendered my behavior perfectly reasonable however... I was trying to determine the level of nastiness of the plastic container-- based on which number was at the center of the little triple arrow recycle symbol-- and whether I would need to add the annoying step of transferring the soup to a safer container before nuking it. My willingness to eat soup nuked in a plastic container of an acceptibly low level of nastiness was probably influenced by a dislike for obstacles between me and hot, coconuty, spicy goodness of Tom Khar Gung soup.
The number was 5. Awesome. Nuking as is.
Had the number been 3, 6, or 7, however, I would've huffed through the precious fraction of a minute it would've taken to transfer the soup to a ceramic or glass bowl for safer nuking. Plastics labeled 3, 6, or 7 are more toxic than plastics labeled 1, 2, 4, or 5. At least I wouldn't have lost any time digging out the cling wrap though, which I know to be at especially high risk for leaching chemicals during microwave heating; instead I use a plastic vented dome that fits over almost any dish and never touches the food (and can be found where kitchen supplies are sold). Waxed paper, a paper towel or a plate can also be safely used for covering foods.
Anyway long story short... 1, 2, 4, or 5 = good; 3, 6, or 7 = bad.

The long story's long version is illustrated in this guide to the different recycling number labels, which may or may not appear with the letters beneath them (from The Daily Green, WebMD, and Health Observatory):

(Polyethylene terephthalate ethylene) Found in soft drink, water and beer bottles, salad dressing containers, and ovenable food trays. It poses low risk of leaching breakdown products and is safe for single use, but these bottles should not be reused, refilled, or heated.

(High density polyethylene) Found in milk jugs, juice bottles, some trash and shopping bags, butter and yogurt tubs, and cereal box liners. It carries low risk of leaching and is readily recyclable into many goods. Unlike plastics labeled "1", these are safe to refill and reuse.

(Polyvinyl chloride) Found in clear food packaging, cling wrap, and plastic squeeze bottles. PVC may release toxic breakdown products (including pthalates) into food and drinks. The risk is highest when containers start wearing out, are put through the dishwasher or when they are heated (including microwaved). PVC materials can off-gas toxic plasticizers into your home. Also never burn PVC because it releases toxins.


(Low density polyethylene) Found in grocery store bags, most plastic wraps, Ziplock bags, squeezable bottles, bread bags, frozen foodbags, shopping bags, furniture, and carpet. Generally considered safe.

(Polypropylene) Found in most Rubbermaid, deli soup, syrup and yogurt containers, other clouded plastic containers, ketchup bottles, caps, medicine bottles and straws. It has a high melting point so is often chosen for containers that must accept hot liquid. Generally considered safe.



(Polystyrene) Found in styrofoam items such as food trays, egg cartons, disposable cups, plates, and bowls, and carry-out containers, and rigid plastics like opaque plastic cutlery. Number 6 plastics can leach potentially toxic breakdown products (including styrene) into foods, particularly when heated.

A wide range of plastic resins that don't fit into the other six categories are lumped into number 7. Some are quite safe, but the ones to worry about are the hard polycarbonate varieties, as found in various drinking containers (like older Nalgene bottles), three- and five-gallon water bottles, and nylon. Studies have shown polycarbonate can leach bisphenol A, a potential hormone disruptor, into liquids, but other #7 plastics like copolyester, polyamide, acrylic and polylactic acid (PLA) are safer choices because they don’t contain BPA.


That's a lot of information to remember when squinting up at the bottom of a food container, so, again, long story short... 1, 2, 4, or 5 = good; 3, 6, or 7 = bad. Note that “microwave safe” doesn't mean that there's no leaching of chemicals, and there's greater leaching of chemicals into fatty foods. Discard worn or scratched bottles and avoid using harsh detergents that can break down the plastic and increase chemical leaching.
(The soup was delicious.)

hyperventilating over bugs, skin, fire, blood, and children (no drugs required)

Am I crazy to be afraid of dust? Common sense says that yes, that would indeed make me crazy. It's dust. Sure, it's disgustingly composed of 75% dead skin cells, plus carpet fiber etc. etc. Well it's the etc. etc. that I'm afraid of: i.e. dust mites and harmful household chemicals such as flame retardants.
Dust mites are microscopic moisture-loving bugs that eat your dead skin, and they're everywhere. They live in mattresses, furniture cushions, and anywhere there's dust. If you're allergic to dust mites' feces then you'd need to take unusual measures such as plastic mattress covers and ripping out carpet, but even if you're not allergic that dust mite poo can still irritate your allergies, so the best way to reduce your exposure is to control dust. More on that later.
There is another hazard in our house dust, one that strikes fear and fury into my heart, courtesy of Evil Corporations: flame retardants. There are several kinds, including some types that have been recently banned, and one that isn't banned but breaks down into the banned compounds. Flame retardants are nasty because they're not only carcinogenic, but they've been shown to cause hyperactivity and behavior change in children, who are exposed to it in their mothers' breast milk, and later as they play on dusty carpet with dusty toys and then stick their hands in their mouths, resulting in much higher amounts in their blood than adults. Flame retardants make their way into our homes in many ways: carpet, upholstery, consumer electronics, insulation, household textiles, even clothes. They're so ubiquitous that the best way to avoid them is to simply avoid dust, followed by avoiding synthetic materials whenever possible. Oh, and the reason for the ubiquity? The leading cause of furniture fire is from smokers falling asleep, and tobacco companies refuse to sell self-extinguishing cigarettes. So now manufacturers treat seemingly almost everything with flame retardant.
If I've given you enough reason to fear dust by now, then you can take preventative measures by vacuuming floors, furniture, and mattresses (and make sure your vacuum has a HEPA filter), wiping surfaces with a wet cloth or sponge, leaving shoes at the door, and airing out your living space (which reduces other indoor pollutants too). Children should wash their hands frequently, especially after playing on carpet and before they eat.
So am I crazy? No, I don't think so, and I'm getting impatient for environmental laws to agree with me.

we are children of the corn

We are what we eat. So that means we're made of our food. Duh. Okay, well what is our food then? The answer's not always simple.
Think about a typical supermarket's aisle signs: Bread. Cereal. Snacks. Candy. Baking ingredients. Frozen dinners. Meat. Dairy. Soda and juice. Canned foods. Condiments. I can smell the warm bakery, the wet produce, and the plastic wrapping on everything... seems pretty diverse and wholesome.
Well, not really, according to the thorough and alarming research in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna and In Defense of Food. A hugely disproportionate amount of what we eat is really just corn. Soda, juice, and most snacks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup--which, by the way, just might slowly kill you. Most of the meat you buy at a supermarket was raised eating corn, whether or not this is a good idea. Many of the unpronounceable additives that keep those factory-made cookies crispy, fresh, and cheap? Made from corn. Corn oil, corn starch, corn syrup, and corn derived additives find their way into almost every processed food. Playing a game of spot-the-corn in a typical supermarket could go on for days.
What about stuff that's obviously not made from corn, like flour or rice? Generally, the flour and rice that people buy is refined and white-- which, by the way, just might slowly kill you. Other non-corn ingredients that also just might slowly kill you (or the environment and thus you): cancer-causing BPA in the lining of canned food and soda. Hormones and antibiotics in meat and dairy. Pesticides in produce. Trans fats in packaged snacks. Nitrates in preserved meats. This list could go on, and it's overwhelming and sad, but-- as Pollan tells us-- fear not: there's a simple solution.
A common theme to these food problems is that they ignore all the wisdom that Mother Nature and traditional culture took thousands, even millions of years to figure out. We evolved to eat foods whole and fresh. Screwing around with food in order to eat it unwhole and unfresh is screwing around with the ability of our bodies and the earth to get health and sustenance from it. Mother Nature had no need for us to evolve around pesticides or Crisco, which is why they're bad for us. Neither does traditional eating culture have a need for BPA-lined cans.
Now, instead of whacking ourselves over the head with long lists of what's horrible about modern processed food, it's more pleasant and simple to just eat as though Mother Nature and traditional culture still ruled our diets. Pollan provides some terrific rules to follow:
1. Eat food: not edible food-like products, but food. Something your great-great-grandmother would recognize as "food". Overall, it's best to shop the perimeter of a supermarket: produce, dairy, meat. The center part is mostly processed corn products. Also, if a food product has a health claim on the package, it's probably not really food. Items with fewer than five ingredients are more likely to be food. And by "eat", it is best to eat slowly, and with others. The skinny, healthy French almost never eat alone and never get seconds. Wolfing down a crispy chicken wrap in your car is better described as consuming rather than eating, and it's certainly not what your great-great-grandmother would call "food".
2. But not too much: sugary sodas, refined grains, and cheap fatty snacks make it easy to eat more calories than you need, and these things weren't available in the world's cultures' traditional diets. (Just a thought-- why should I be impressed that a brand of vitamin water only has 25 calories? Shouldn't water have zero? Also, don't I need to be a professional athlete working out twice a day to get any benefit from energy bars?)
3. Mostly plants: Corn is a grain, and is thus a seed-- as opposed to a plant-- and the seed-based diet that permeates supermarket shelves is less nutritious than a plant-based diet. This rule flows down to our meat, too: animals raised eating their natural diet of plants and plant-eating prey will be better for you and the environment than grain-fed animals (look for grass-finished beef and pasture-raised chickens). Refining grains and then adding back in certain vitamins and additives is less nutritious, so when you do eat grains, eat them whole, as Mother Nature meant us to.

After all, Mother Nature spent millions of years figuring out what's good for us, including things that we have yet to discover. And I'll definitely put my faith in Mother Nature over some packaged food product corporation!

healthier than Dora fruity-snacks: delicious gobs of dirt!

Germs don't get good press. Nothing summons a pack of CNN health correspondents faster than an E. Coli outbreak. But besides (extremely) rare E. Coli, we've also been taught to fear other, more common germs: salmonella, head colds, flu viruses, etc. I remember educational films in elementary school featuring mean-looking cartoon germ creatures laughing sinisterly from toilet seats and trash cans, flailing into comical, dramatic deaths during a good old hand washing.
Unfortunately that heroic image of soap and water has been replaced by Mom's new germ-fighting weapon of mass destruction: antibacterial cleansers. Those educational films have been translated into TV ads-- cartoon germ monsters included-- except now instead of the kid washing hands with soap, Mom is fighting an epic battle against germ monsters with a scorched earth strategy of antibacterial room spray, disposable antibacterial wipes, and antibacterial hand soap at every sink. Apparently, good moms kill 99.9% of icky germs!
Thing is, antibacterial cleansers do kill 99.9% of germs, including harmless ones, in fact including some that are good for us. And what about those remaining 0.1% of germs that survived Mom's antibacterial onslaught? They reproduce and take over their new, uncompetitive digs, leading to the possible development of "supergerms."
That's a pretty risky gamble considering that antibacterial cleansers don't do any better at killing germs that cause colds, flus, and food poisoning, than plain soap & water. And growing evidence supports the "hygiene hypothesis" suggesting that exposure to dirt, germs, and allergens, especially as children, actually helps prevent chronic respiratory illnesses such as asthma and allergies.
So how do we avoid exposure to bad germs, like cold viruses or salmonella, without antibacterial cleansers? With plain old soap and water. Use soap and warm water to wash your hands (20 seconds is recommended) and to wash surfaces. That's it! Wash as often as you want-- that's even better, especially during cold season.
Besides hand washing, keeping your nose warm when it's chilly outside may help prevent catching cold viruses. Viruses are most common on doorknobs, urinal flush handles, public phones, elevator buttons, wet surfaces like sinks, and hands (especially kids' hands), so wash your hands with soap and warm water after touching these things, and don't touch your nose, mouth, or eyes until you do. Interestingly, the bathroom door on the way out is not the risk my mother thinks it is.
To avoid salmonella, keep raw meat separate from other foods during preparation, and freeze it if you plan on storing it for more than 5 days. Defrost it in the fridge or the microwave instead of at room temperature (and cook it right away if using the microwave). Wash your hands with plain soap and warm water after handling raw meat, which has a higher salmonella risk than raw eggs.
Also, washing your hands with soap and water will get more germs off your hands than using liquid sanitizers, so only depend on that little bottle if there's no sink or soap.
And cheer on all those kids eating dirt!

carcinogenic smoke pollution, now in fresh apple scent

Who doesn't like scented candles? They're lovely, smell nice, make easy gifts, and appear safer than aerosol room sprays.
Ha! You should know by now that even the most seemingly benign products can contain unnecessary harmful compounds. Add scented candles to that list. Phthalates-- which already show up in artificial fragrances in cosmetics-- are released into the air from many scented candles and air fresheners.
But wait, it gets worse.
Some candles, especially ones with metallic-looking wicks, will spew certain metals, including lead. Not legal, but it's there.
Then there's the soot. Scented candles result in more soot than unscented, as do candles in glass jars. Reports of enormous soot damages to homes have increased as more people are buying aromatherapy candles.
So what's a freaked out scent-loving person to do?
First and foremost, avoid any candle that appears to have metal in the wick. Look for cotton or paper instead. Second, avoid synthetically scented candles. And no... plug-in air fresheners aren't a good alternative. I recommend setting out bottles of essential oils (not artificially scented oil, mind you) with a cold air diffuser stick. And if you like candles for their romantic aesthetic, then unscented candles (or candles scented with essential oils instead of synthetic fragrance) made from soy or beeswax are probably better than petroleum-based paraffin candles, which are likely what a candle is made from unless otherwise noted. And quite importantly, avoid metallic-looking wicks!!!

battlefield produce aisle: invasion of the dirty dozen

In a perfect world, we'd all be buying all organic, all of the time. But while some lucky few can depend exclusively on on farmers markets, specialty stores, or community supported agriculture (CSA), this ideal is nearly impossible for the rest of us who buy at least some of our produce from the neighborhood grocery store-- where selection is likely to be pretty limited in the little organic corner of the produce aisle.
Thus it is good to know that some types of organic produce have greater impact than others on the environment and your health. Hence the Dirty Dozen, the twelve items you should really try to buy from that teensy organic corner (plus non-organic alternatives if they're not there):

so uh... what's wrong with canned baby formula??

The Environmental Working Group's blog recently had an excellent post on how toxins leach into some canned foods. Canned baby formula, chicken soup, and ravioli were the worst. Canned vegetables didn't score well either.
Foods that had some (but not a lot) of the toxin, in some of the brands tested: canned beans, tuna, fruit, and soda. Canned milk products were the least worrisome.
The toxin is BPA, which has been linked to neurobehavioral problems in the prenatally-exposed and to breast and prostate cancer. It leaches from the plastic resin lining inside the cans (Eden Organic Beans is the only company known to not use the resin in their cans-- except for their tomatoes).
BPA also leaches from some plastic baby bottles and water bottles, especially polycarbonate ones that might be marked with recycling number 7 (Nalgene is a common example). Non-leaching stainless steel water bottles are a better alternative as are glass baby bottles or other BPA-free baby products. Here's a quick guide on avoiding other plastic exposures.
But higher heat means more leaching, and canned foods are exposed to a lot more hot, leaching BPA during the canning process than most plastic water bottles ever could expect. This is also why you should avoid heating your food in plastic tupperware-- use ceramic or glass instead. And powdered baby formula and fresh or frozen vegetables, soups and pastas are better alternatives to canned.

how "organic" cosmetics might mess up your kids and give you cancer

The word "organic" is very well defined when it comes to food-- the USDA certifies whether a farm is organic or not. It's all very standardized.
But the word "organic" appearing on a foundation or shampoo bottle means bupkis. It's a marketing technic, no better standardized than the words "salon-professional" or "will take your hair to a place it's never been before" (no joke... verbatim from Herbal Essences).
The Environmental Working Group has set up an online database of thousands of cosmetics, from shampoo to mascara to body lotion, rating the toxic risk of the product from all of those weird unpronounceable ingredients.
For instance, under the name "DMDM Hydandoin," formaldehyde makes a frequent appearance. Formaldehyde! As in the thing that FEMA will actually protect Katrina victims from. Another toxin called phthalates ("thal-eights") is common in products that contain fragrance-- and there's a lot of those. Besides cosmetics, phthalates also show up in soft plastics, including a lot of children's toys, and vinyl shower curtains too. Since more phthalates leach into your body at higher temperatures, a shower curtain is a particular risk. Phthalates do nasty hormonal things to developing boys, and my fear of them has led me to purchase a fabric shower curtain, fragrance-free deoderant, lotion, cleansers, etc, and I've warily eyed some of my shoes too.
But phthalates are only one of the many toxins the database revealed to be in my bathroom. I've already started switching brands of some cosmetics. I wish I could give you a short list of good brands vs. bad ones, but most brands are all over the place. I highly recommend looking up everything in your cabinet... and if you can't find a particular product then look up everything on the list of ingredients. And then, after your inevitable freakout, find safer replacements.

watch out for our fishy friends in the sea

Many people might recognize this very popular and wonderful seafood guide, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is the national version but there are regional guides too.
In case you don't want to bother with a print-out, you can look up the mobile version by logging onto www.seafoodwatch.org on your phone.
Shark, swordfish, king mackerel, farmed salmon, and tilefish should especially be avoided because of their high mercury levels.

The San Francisco Chronicle included this seasonality chart in their green guide and it's a handy supplement to the Seafood Watch guide.
Meats are as seasonal as produce, and fish is no exception. Eating seasonally will support sustainability and will taste better anyway.