Smart emma with her smart lunch box packaging! awesome ideas!

via - smartemma.co.uk

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I was already happy to see here in Switzerland pharmacies selling baby bottles "not containing BPA". With this new article discussed on Nature I am even more satisfied to see that BPA possible danger is coming into fashion also for the big public.

A preliminary study possibly links diabetes and heart attack to BPA presence in human blood. BPA comes from food packages made of plastic, so virtually everybody can have high percentage of it in his/her body.

"The researchers compared BPA levels to responses on the health questionnaire. When the data were divided into four equally sized groups based on BPA concentration, those in the group with the highest concentration were three times more likely to have cardiovascular disease and 2.4 times more likely to have diabetes than those in the group with the lowest concentration". This doesn't make a DIRECT link between BPA and diseases, but it rings a bell saying: caution, MAYBE BPA really harms human health (animal health is for sure harmed, as many other studies showed!).

Make the intelligent decision: avoid plastic food packages, especially for food that could be heated or left at hot temperature during the transport (like beverages, for example).

It also appears to raise the risk of diabetes, and it has been linked to  a number of other diseases including breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, fertility problems in men and developmental disorders in babies.

Gender-bending chemical used in plastic bottles doubles risk of heart disease | Mail Online

Another good reason to cut down on packaged foods!

 I know that when my parents were working as missionaries, and traveling out of the country where water was an issue, they always carried a small bottle of bleach, and would add a few small drops to the water thay they used to wash fresh vegetables & fruit, not enough to really harm you, but enough to kill bacteria.  I'm not sure about the actual science of this, but it worked really well for them and seemed to keep them from getting sick.

If you are a sceince nut like me, you can check out this latest research paper release.   www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/icl-hsb090108.php

The Associated Press is reporting that the California Assembly has reversed itself and approved a bill to limit the amount of the chemical Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) that has been linked to cancer in food packaging. The measure—by Senator Ellen Corbett-Democrat-San Leandro—would permit no more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of PFOA in food packing such as fast-food wrappers, pizza boxes, and beverage containers.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers PFOA potentially carcinogenic and says businesses should voluntarily stop using it by 2015. A spokeswoman for Corbett said the bill would make California the first state to essentially ban use of the compound in food containers; 10 ppb is the smallest PFOA amount detectable by tests. Although the Assembly rejected the bill last week, lawmakers reconsidered it after Corbett agreed to make a minor amendment. Yesterday's vote of 42-29 returned the bill to the Senate for a vote on Assembly amendments.

AP: Calif. Assembly OKs Ban on Chemical in Food Wraps

Warning: Rant alert

I’m asking for a new consumer protection law; let’s call it the “Truth in Packaging Law.” And I’d like to see it enforced right away, beginning with staple food items—like potato chips. If I’m going to pay $3.99 for a bag of fried spuds, then I don’t want to discover that the contents of my “family size” package won’t feed even one mildly hungry preteen.

The more food prices have risen, the less I seem to find inside my cereal boxes, too. Didn’t the standard size cereal box used to hold 14 or 15 ounces? My Special K has 13.5 ounces, now. And it comes in a box that could probably hold at least 30% more. Ditto for my wheat crackers.

As a test, I pulled all three of these items, unopened, from my kitchen pantry. Then I emptied the containers into either gallon or quart size Ziplock bags. The photos below include ALL of the food volume from these packages.

A full box of cereal looks like this when transferred to a Ziplock bag.

A full box of crackers looks like this when transferred to a quart-size Ziplock bag.

A full bag of potato chips looks like this when transferred to a quart-size Ziplock bag.

And my cat looked like this when I was taking all these photos.

Yes, we need passage of the Truth in Packaging Law. But I'm thinking this law would have to exempt women’s undergarments. I'd hate to be restricted from deceptively "displaying my goods" in a push-up bra!

http://www.totallyskewed.com

http://www.franklyfunny.com

¹Jane Byrne, Food Production Daily

read more | digg story

¹PRW.com

read more | digg story

Nowadays advertisers and merchandisers hone in on the words “green” and “organic” to sell their wares. Retailers like Marks & Spencer appeared to have created a “green” profit centre, where none existed before.

Let me explain in the hope that I do not misrepresent what Marks & Spencer are up to. Some time ago Mr Brown, the UK’s Prime Minister, made a speech in which he decried the habit of single use plastic bags of the kind given away by supermarkets. These plastic bags can take a century to decompose, and possibly longer. They cannot be easily recycled and they fill up land fills often escaping in the wind like horrid white birds to litter our countryside.

Marks & Spencer, that doyen of food and clothing retailing decided that plastic bags were an environmental hazard. They could have stopped supplying them and provided paper bags for their customers. They could have also reduced the unnecessary packaging that adorns much of their food outlets and our landfill sites.

Instead of adopting either of these courses of action Marks & Spencer decided that they would start charging people for plastic bags, in order to discourage their use. The charge would only be 5 pence (a dime in the USA) but if you do a weekly shop at Marks & Spencer using their plastic bags you might well end up with a dozen of the beasts, which would cost you 60 pence under the new charging regime.

With great fanfare Marks & Spencer’s chief executive no less announced that Marks and Spencer would not profit from this initiative – the money raised would go to Groundworks, an admirable environmental charity of whom I have a great deal of respect. Groundworks do good work.

I cannot value the air time on national TV and in national newspapers that this initiative got for Marks & Spencer. I think that the media missed the point – the angle they took was that Marks & Spencer were doing something environmentally good but the point was at the time that it was such a modest step and they could have done so much better. They were taking, I said at the time, a step which cost them nothing.

A couple of weeks ago I lugged a hemp bag laden with some shopping into my local Marks & Spencer to get some items. When I got to the till to pay for my purchases I noticed a small sign explaining about the 5 pence charge for plastic bags. It did not say that the five pences would go to Groundworks, but that the profit from the five pences would go to Groundworks.

So, before the initiative Marks and Spencer paid for the plastic bags themselves as a service to their customers. After the initiative the customers pay for the plastic bags with the profits going to charity. Under the guise being “green” Marks & Spencer have got the public to pay for plastic bags!

Is it any wonder that the public are cynical about “green” initiatives?

I represented Mayor Rody Duterte at the ribbon-cutting which was star-studded. The guests include action star Senator Bong Revilla who also tagged along his fellow actor Philip Salvador.

(Rene B. Lumawag/Sunstar Davao June 19)

Also present were Doc Edmund Dantes who represented Rep. Anton Lagdameo, Sim Marfori of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry, local tuna king Doming Ang of Philexport, former DATA head Baby Montemayor, and a gang of regional directors of national government agencies.

The exhibit features the latest technology on food processing and packaging, food products and services. There are also plenty of free seminars that will run up to Saturday.

Kudos to Joel Pascual of Premier Events Plus Group for holding this trade fair in the city. Last year, on site sales topped P50 million. We are certain that this would be surpassed this year.

Indication? Well, even the lobby of the Central Bank, which was used in the past for the opening rites, was now filled with exhibitor booths.

Here's how Sunstar reported on my brief remarks.

Incidentally, seated beside Senator Revilla, I revealed to him that my father hails from Cavite. He inquired from what part and I told him from Amadeo. Seven kilometers from Tagaytay, this town is tagged as the coffee capital of the country.

Revilla served as Vice Governor and Governor of the province before taking over the post of his father in the Senate.

He is being considered as a potential vice presidential bet for the administration in 2010. After the opening ceremony, he headed to the first regional Lakas-Kampi merger conference at Apo View Hotel where the Malacanang occupant made certain that the administration would win in the next national elections.

That I doubt very much.

5:25 a.m.

Today I got busy and forgot to photograph anything besides this cup. I tossed the lid and recycled the paper cup. One thing I did do was to run a couple plastic half pint containers and their lids through the dishwasher. I then took them with me and asked the deli food guy to use them for some bean salads I ordered. He was a bit taken aback at first but then saw and approved of what I was asking. I still need to pick up a "spork" so I don't keep throwing away plastic forks.

Today didn't start out with a photograph of my newspaper. I"ve started saving the plastic bags. As mentioned before, I'll use some to pick up after my dog. The rest I'll take to a recycling place every so often. (Berkeley's curbside recycling pick up doesn't include plastic bags.) I'll save the rubber bands and take them into the office to add to the supply drawer.

Not a bad day--only five photographs. This morning's newspapers' plastic bags went onto the dog's leash and I brought home the plastic half-pint container for washing. There are no recycling facilities for used plastic bottles on Fourth Street where I go to hang out but since I live only three blocks away I can bring them home. I could have brought home the used paper container above but it was too messy so I tossed it.

(Damn, I forgot to take the cupcake wrapper back into Bette's To Go for their food/paper waste basket.)

OK, after a week of this I see some things I can do. First, stop forgetting to bring my metal Nissan coffee cup with me. This will save throwing away a plastic cup lid for each cup of coffee I get. Second, I could take along a plastic fork and spoon, or better, one of those plastic combo "sporks." Also, a cloth handkerchief to use instead of always taking a paper napkin. Next, I can begin saving the plastic newspaper bags to use in picking up after my dog on walks. I won't be able to use all the newspaper bags I get but I can use a lot of them. Last, and I'm not quite ready for this yet, I could take home and wash out the round plastic half-pint containers a lot of my food seems to come in. If I had a clean one with me I don't imagine that there would be any problem giving it to the counter person when I buy something that comes in them. Reuse beats recycling every time.

If you have been viewing these posts chronologically and have been paying very close attention you will have noticed that there is no photograph of the little paper boat that my breakfast fruit tart came in nor of the paper coffee cup. This is because I discovered today that Bette's To Go, where I go most mornings, has a recycling waste basket behind the counter for food-related paper waste. This is great. Now when I eat at one of their tables out front, as I usually do, I can bring these paper items back in to be put in that waste basket.

i

I forgot to photograph the cupcake wrapper I threw away. Also, in case you are thinking that my eating habits are lousy, don't forget that you aren't seeing any fruit or salads I might be eating.

Nearly all food packaging today.