Naturalpath

As green consumer choices continue to permeate our shopping experience, my awareness is battling my conscience. Everytime I checkout at the grocery store and they ask the inevitable paper or plastic question, I am overcome with uncertainty not knowing what the right choice is. Unable to bear the guilt any longer, I ventured into the green blogosphere on a quest to find out once and for all what is best, paper or plastic?

I found this interview on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website. It confronts a few rumors that have been going around via email that warn against freezing water in plastic bottles. The rumors state that if you freeze water in a plastic bottle, you will be exposed to carcinogenic dioxins. According to Rolf Halden, PhD, PE, professor at Johns Hopkins University, this is not true.

The most common question we get asked is about the effects of bottled water. Here's the skinny: plastic is bad, and no amount of convenience can justify that. Americans add over 30 million plastic water bottles to our nation's landfills everyday.

In addition, plastic can be harmful to our health, which multiplies the negative effects of bottled water since we're consuming it at such a high rate. According to our friends at Idealbite:

View Debra Lynn Dadd's Bio

We like to think of our homes as being a safe place to be--a refuge from a dangerous world. Yet some of the exposures that you have day-to-day that are most hazardous to your health and the health of your family happen right at home.

The good news is that for every toxic product you'll find in your home, there is a safer alternative. You just need to know where to look for those toxic exposures and what safe solutions are available.

Here are ten common toxic exposures most Americans have in their homes, and some simple, inexpensive things everyone can do to reduce household toxics.

Having heard so much negative information about the chemicals (phthalates and Bisphenol A) from plastic containers leaching into food and bottled drinks, I've tried my best to avoid them when it comes to buying food.  I turned instead to canned foods thinking they must be safe.  Like many busy moms, I often stock up on canned goods not just for earthquake emergencies, but also for quick meals for the family.  Using canned beans for chili is so much easier than soaking and cooking them from scratch....  Canned ravioli tastes so much better to the kids than my homemade stuff and is oh so much quicker...  But are the time savings worth it?

Plastic is everywhere, from Tupperware to plastic wrap, to bowls and utensils -- even paper cartons and deli paper are usually sprayed with a layer of plastic. Plastic is a treacherous biohazard for two reasons:

1. It can leach carcinogenic chemicals into our food (and our bodies) from plastic food packaging; and,
2. Perhaps just as alarming, plastics are contaminating our environment.

Can plastic containers contaminate our food? They're made from a variety of toxic chemicals, including a known class of carcinogens called phthalates (which are softeners that are added to make plastic flexible) and Bisphenol A (BPA), both of which can migrate into food.

You carry a toxic burden.

Chances are that you have multiple types of toxins in your body. We know this because some California celebrities were tested, and they all carried some potentially harmful chemical burden in their bodies.

The non-stick coating popular on frying pans may, in fact, be an unsavory way to cook.