So plastics have been in the news a lot lately. Chemical leaching, links to cancer, child defects, hormonal issues, etc.... I personally have tossed my Nalgene bottle. It was a blue one with a couple of stickers on it: The Clintons band and Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Beat to heck and back twice. Has seen many a mile in my hands, strapped to a back pack, or rolling around in the floorboard of my jeep. It has been with me for 4 yrs+ and I had to off my old friend today. R.I.P. Mr. Little Nalgene Bottle.
Do I believe in all this plastic "nonsense" you ask. I say yes. We live in a world where parents are on the verge of bringing back diseases we know as 99.9% extinct due to some ravings about vaccinations in children. What I have to say about the vaccine issue is repeat the first study's findings and lets call it a day. I believe that we will see more and more of these reports coming out: http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0425071020080107 . I think it takes one person running down the hall to yell fire and partially evacuate a building.
"Partially" due to the fact that all of us are not set to flight before fight. We hear someone yell "FIRE!". We become alarmed. We look around at people running away, jumping out of windows, and starting to yell "FIRE!" themselves. We then notice no smoke. No burning smell. Where the heck is the campfire? No fire alarms. No sprinklers going off. WTH? Why would people be running and yelling if there was no fire? I think it is due to the fact some people are truly that naive in their beliefs that everyone is honest and true. The other fact is a lot of people want to be the "man in charge". The person in the know. The "important" one. Self-importance is a trait found regularly in people that strain for reassurance in what ever they do. I am guilty of lapsing into vicious cycles of self-importance from time to time. "S" will look at me and tell me that I do not know all that the world does not, and that I need to be a little more humble in my "opinions" on certain subject matters. I of course argue that she does not know what she is talking about, and reserve myself to act more tolerable.
Back to plastics.... I think they make a great bumper to a car, mud fenders for a mountain bike, and Aglet on a pair of shoelaces. At the same time, most things man made are dangerous to some point or extent. We are HUMAN for Pete's sake. That is why we use that excuse all the time. "It is okay man, you cannot win every time, I mean you are human!" I love it. The irony of it all. Long blog short though, I will go through my plastics this week and do some filing into file "13r"(recyclable garbage) of a lot I am afraid. I think that the person responsible for bringing this to light should be awarded their own 90% plastic American made automobile to drive around.....
Until next time, be well, be swell, and don't be afraid to say What the hell?.........
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2 comments:
We were talking about this last night...and I've done some looking into this already (before the conversation, as it were): The way I'm looking at this one is simple - Who has the most to gain? The old "follow the money" idea.
If we take the Nalgene bottle, reusable, made from recycled plastics, virtually indestructible, and compare it to other "viable" water sources ("Dasani" and "Aquafina"...owned by Coke and Pepsi respectively), both bottles made of thin plastics, not as reusable (Aquafina recently changed the mouth of their bottle to make it harder to refill), not indestructible, add to this mixture the fact that Nalgene is a single company, small in stature, versus the colossal might of Coke and PepsiCo...this starts to look like the big guy doing whatever they can to destroy the little guy. It's about MONEY.
More? Ok...what about the fact that the FDA (http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/technical/FDAstatement.html), the European Food Safety Administration (http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1178620835386.htm) as well as The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare have all written findings that the levels of BPA given off by these materials isn't any worse than you get from any other source in your daily life?
Well, what about the group of scientists that came out condemning Nalgene and all Polycarbonate plastics? I ask you...who has more money to get what they want done? A large corporation that has offices world-wide, or a small company?
Sure...I'm not arguing the fact that SOME level of toxins are released...but, we can walk outside, breathe in the air, and get just as much carcinogens. The people who yell "FIRE!"? Yeah...try that in a movie theater full of people if there isn't a fire...those people go to jail.
I want to first comment on that not ALL plastics are at question here. The plastics of question are type 3,6, and 7. Also you have to heat them or damage them to really release the chemicals. With that said here goes:
"First, I would like to scream “How did one of the largest plastic manufacturers in the world get all the neo-hippies to buy their shit?” Nalgene is owned by Nalge Nunc, owned by Apogent, just bought by Fisher Scientific International Inc., which is just the kind of bloated corporation which many Nalgene-owners berate."
This quote is from: http://www.jckamman.com/thetorch/issue6.htm
Who has the most to gain? Who has the money? How about Nalgene. I was once told by an old rancher I worked for this; "If their is poop in the house, look at who is in the the house first." Nalgene can step back and claim they are a victim here. "Remake" safe bottles, offer them for a discount to previous Nalgene owners, and reap the benefits twice fold. As far as gov't agencies and their testing. No gov't agency is going to declare fault. Doing that would launch a multitude of class action lawsuits that the defendants would have no hope to fight. Instead they do a plausibly deniable response of yes there are bad things but prolly not enough to hurt you. I say ship all the Number 3,6, and 7 plastics to their house and see if they use them.......
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