Plastic leaching question

[platinumdude]

I haven't drank from plastic bottles in a long time, but I do drink from my refrigerator's water. It does go through a plastic tube. Even if only cold water goes there, is the leaching from that plastic bad? I'm thinking of getting a refrigerator without the water and auto ice mechanism, and just using a water filter connected to the sinks tap.

[Ponce]

Dude? don't take it to extremes......even the air is bad, and what are you going to do? carry a back pack with a filtered clean air tank?............at seventy one I do as I please and I never get sick but for a cold about once every five or six years.........only one thing that I don't do (because it makes sense) and that is to heat my food in the micro while using a plastic container.

[Ash_Williams]

If you're on city water then it goes through no shortage of plastic before it gets to your tap.
If you're on well water then who knows what's in it.

From what I've seen, the people who live to 90 and 100 don't worry about such things.

[beefsteak]

I haven't drank from plastic bottles in a long time, but I do drink from my refrigerator's water. It does go through a plastic tube. Even if only cold water goes there, is the leaching from that plastic bad? I'm thinking of getting a refrigerator without the water and auto ice mechanism, and just using a water filter connected to the sinks tap.


Your query sent me to google where I discovered all KINDS of flexible tubing...made out of things I didn't know tubing was made out of. Before changing out your refrig, you might wish to "shop via google" for an alternative tubing...

Shouldn't be A) too hard to locate and purchase short length of, B) attach using existing orifices. I don't have the problem b/c we make our ice cubes the "old fashioned way" at least every other day, and sooner if necessary. However, if I did,
I'd be visiting an appliance repair establishment, and ask to see how one is installed from scratch, and where all the openings are etc. It may be as simple as just installing a new unit, rigged with the non-plastic tubing of your prior purchase/selection. Also, check for PDFs on line before heading to the appliance repair biz...you'll probably understand what is being said to you if you familiarize yourself with PDF drawings first.

Please keep me posted on what you learn. Perhaps these Ideas will get your wheels to turning. My first thought was surgical rubber hose frankly, but then that's just me.

beefsteak

[Ponce]

I just read today that some dirt and bugs that you might eat is good for you.....up till now everytime that someone drops some food on the floor they throw it away and that's the problems with most Americans, they are to zanitize, and when they go overseas they get sick either with the food or the water.

[gunDriller]

i think it's a very reasonable question, i have seen people hurt badly by manufacturing residues.

in the case of water, when i drank bottled Arrowhead because i didn't want to drink fluoridated water, i wondered if i was semi-addicted to the trace amounts of plastic residue in the water. but never saw anything conclusive.

in most cases, plastic is relatively inert, after manufacturing residues have been washed away.

then when a plastic gets old, e.g. an old lawn chair, the webbing sits in the sun for 10 years, you move it and this small cloud of plastic dust rises up - don't breathe that sh!t.

for me as an engineer, it's sort of interesting to see how plastic degrades over time. but as a consumer interested in health, i am cautious. the plastics industry is one industry over from the folks who make Corexit.


>I haven't drank from plastic bottles in a long time, but I do drink from my refrigerator's water. It does go through a plastic tube. Even if only cold water goes there, is the leaching from that plastic bad? I'm thinking of getting a refrigerator without the water and auto ice mechanism, and just using a water filter connected to the sinks tap.

to answer your question, i would be careful on a new fridge. i would run 10 gallons through it to flush any possible residues.

one example of manufacturing residues - lubricants that are sprayed on plastic molds during manufacturing. the part gets assembled but never thoroughly cleaned, especially in a low-cost manufacturing operation.

it sounds like your fridge is used, so i wouldn't worry about it imparting crap into your drinking water. i would be concerned about crap in the drinking water, e.g. fluoride, hexavalent chromium, or whatever else may be in your local water.


one other example of gnarly plastic - polyurethane foam, like they make surfboards from. BAD SH!T !

it contains a cyanide molecule. that is the reason Clark Foam, who used to be in Irvine Calif., was shut down. they were making 1 million + surfboard blanks a year, but Clark didn't want to deal with the environmental issues. just plain shut down.

he could have dealt with the issue head on, and come out with a wood compartment design, and told surfers to "just deal with it". some surfers would whine "it (wood compartment surfboard) doesn't have enough spring, i want a (poly) foam board".


to me this is a fascinating issue because it relates to the history of the plastics industry, which is intertwined with the history of the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry.

in the 1930's, Ford, in addition to publishing his book The International Jew, also came out with a hemp plastic car. just like Mom using a tincture of opium, or cocaine, or cannabis, that was the technology of the day, pre-1937.

i think what happened is, the Talmud worshippers realized they could make a LOT more money if they could push all industry (medical, transportation, manufacturing) towards using petro-chemical based plastics. and they didn't like competitors - hemp was a competitor to petro-chemicals in both medical and manufacturing.

this Greed Quest took the Talmud worshippers as far as buying & ripping up mass transit lines.

and so every engineering school in America teaches students to design plastic stuff.

then it gets made by the low-cost manufacturer, who doesn't have time for a rigorous work ethic. so they don't always clean up after something is made.


i stopped buying food made in China. ;D