WARNING: Plastic buckets are not safe

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zbouri

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I just posted this in the Home Depot bucket thread, but I thought more people should see it since so many use plastic buckets.

The peer-reviewed, National Institute of Health journal 'Environmental Health Perspectives' tested over 200 products with different types and combinations of new-generation 'food safe' plastics...

95% released endocrine disrupters.

EDs are risky even in small amounts because they mimic hormones and their effect is thus far reaching. They are linked to many health disorders.

But if you let an actively fermenting alcoholic beverage sit in ANY plastic bucket for a week, it is quite likely you will be drinking estrogen-mimicking plastics.

We always have to make safety decisions with a limited budget, but glass is a worthwhile investment for me.
 
Here's one article I've found searching google:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/

For example, 9 of 13 HDPE plastic products extracted by our standard EtOH protocol (69%) had detectable EA (Table 1), with a %RME2 (mean ± SD) of 66% ± 25% (see Supplemental Material, Table 5A).
Click to expand...

I believe this says that 69% of HDPE products tested with Ethanol extracted EA in detectable amounts (given certain Root Mean Squared Errors). How the amount extracted affects the human body over time I'm not sure.

and

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230412/

Our most recent data show that there is very little extra expense to produce safer plastics that do not leach chemicals having EA; that is, it costs very little at this time to avoid a potential health risk.
Click to expand...

If someone could interpret the results of those studies and put it in plain English that'd be great! TIA!
 
yeah, a link would be nice.
Did this study only concern "food safe" plastics or did it also include "food grade" plastics?
 
TheLastDamnBatch said:
Here's one article I've found searching google:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/

and

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230412/
Click to expand...

I'd like more on this. Reading through the first link they mention 'common use stress' which are uv (sunlight) microwaving and heating. I don't do any of those things with my buckets. I think my microwave is about the size of a bucket.

I'm not able to tell food safe v food grade of the test samples. (food safe is ok for short term use iirc)
 
kh54s10 said:
I'm not too worried. Look in your cupboards and refrigerator. How much plastic do you see?
Click to expand...
Wait . . . I'd think that should make you worry more.

Or are you going with, two negitives make a positive? :D




edit:
not taking sides in this debate, just sayin'
 
Most of whats talked about is colored plastics. the articles linked to are from sept 2011. I couldn't find anything on the study the op listed. troll? :fro:
 
kh54s10 said:
I'm not too worried. Look in your cupboards and refrigerator. How much plastic do you see?
Click to expand...

That is not the point, I mean the first cans for canning used lead soder. By your logic, they were safe.. only they were terrific for lead poisoning.

What the chemicalls leached in by the article linked byt TDB from are pseudo estrogens, so they act like estrogen in the system.

For men it causes lower sperm counts and lower testosterone. iirc. I don't recall the problems for women.

Off topic a bit, this same problem comes from our water because those chemicals either from pastic production or from certian medications that are not totally metabolized but make it into our water is also doing this. It has been noted in the fish and frog populations in CO that they are getting estrogen in the water.

Still, I'm using my bucket while I continue to evaluate this.
 
ACbrewer said:
That is not the point, I mean the first cans for canning used lead soder. By your logic, they were safe.. only they were terrific for lead poisoning.

What the chemicalls leached in by the article linked byt TDB from are pseudo estrogens, so they act like estrogen in the system.

For men it causes lower sperm counts and lower testosterone. iirc. I don't recall the problems for women.

Off topic a bit, this same problem comes from our water because those chemicals either from pastic production or from certian medications that are not totally metabolized but make it into our water is also doing this. It has been noted in the fish and frog populations in CO that they are getting estrogen in the water.

Still, I'm using my bucket while I continue to evaluate this.
Click to expand...

3 words...

Plastic
Man
Boobs
 
So is typing on a keyboard "prolonged exposure to plastics" too? I do not think anyone here is worried, at all, about using the correct plastics in the brewing process.
 
I am still not worried. I do not ferment in really cheap buckets. I have been eating food from plastic since I can remember. My man boobs are no bigger than normal for my weight. Besides my Ouija board said I am going to die from Bubonic Plague!
 
I went through the last year's issues of 'Environmental Health Perspectives' and didn't see anything. There was one article about Bisphenol-S, but I assume that's not what you're referring to. We need to stop talking about "plastics" as if they were one thing. Some have significant known health effects and others consistently come up pretty clean.

Without a few specifics, these warnings are pretty much meaningless.
 
So, still no link to the study. I smell a troll.

At the least it's dredging up an oft debated topic.

Let's talk about the dangers of glass...
 
OP just made you guys waste your time browsing medical journals and studies.

OP wins?
 
"We used a roboticized MCF-7 cell proliferation assay... to quantify the EA of chemicals leached into saline or ethanol extracts of many types of commercially available plastic materials, some exposed to common-use stresses...

Results: Almost all commercially available plastic products we sampled—independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source—leached chemicals having reliably detectable EA" (EA means Estrogenic Activity)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/

Yes I realize that this one doesn't specifically mention 'food-grade'. This is not the original article, its just the first one I found. I read the original a year ago. I'm sorry, I am too hungry and I must get ready for work. If you want to call me a troll, fine.

Am I being too paranoid? My friend who works as a birth assistant has seen a huge increase in birth defects, attributed by the doctors at her hospital to endocrine disruptors in our environment.

So yeah, I'm a little concerned.

It is quite possible that dangerous compounds dissolve into our beer. Its also possible they don't. Personally, I choose to err on the side of caution, and I respectfully suggest that you do so as well.
 
I saw Endocrine Disruptors open for The Pus-Ridden Anal Sores at a local dive pub

they're obscure, you probably never have heard of them

except doctors are blaming them for causing 3-eyed babies
 
I tried to read the study. Way to technical for me. I am still not worried. If I suddenly grow double D's I will then get rid of all my plastics.
 

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