Food packages release chemicals

Bengaluru, Nov. 18: Many chemical additives that give plastic products their texture and durability enter our food chain, by migrating from the plastic packaging to the food they contain with serious health implications, says Dr Seemanthini Desai.

“For example, if they contain lead, cadmium and mercury they can cause direct toxicity,” the medical expert explains. Buy food in glass or metal containers and avoid storing fatty foods in plastic containers and plastic wraps, advises Dr Suma S. Nair, who also suggests that parents stop giving young children plastic teethers and toys as a health precaution.

Aware of the harmful effects of plastics on the environment, health doctors and environmentalists are applauding the new draft rules framed by the Union ministry of environment and forests, which ban the use of carry bags or containers made of recycled plastics for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging food stuff.

As of now plastic is widely used in the city. Of the 3,000 tonnes of waste generated in the city every day, five to 10 per cent is plastic.

“Hardly 60 per cent of it is available for recycling, while the rest settles on the soil, polluting the environment,” says C.D. Kumar, senior environmental officer, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. Plastics that are disposed of indiscriminately prevent recharging of ground water as they form an impenetrable layer on the soil.

“If animals happen to eat the plastic, they can even die. If the plastic is burnt, pollutants like dioxins and feurons which are carcinogenic, are released into the air,” the senior environmental officer adds.