Health News

Microwaving Plastic Linked To Diabetes, Study Finds

Microwaving food inside of plastic containers could be hazardous to your health, as a new study published this month in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism has found a link to various health problems including diabetes.

The researchers behind the study analyzed two compounds in plastics, phthalates, which were reportedly introduced over the course of the past 10 years in light of a similar compound having been identified as dangerous. Unfortunately, the researchers found that the two replacement chemicals weren’t all that much better, as they saw a “significant association” between high blood pressure and the chemicals.

While microwaving food in plastic containers causes the toxic chemicals from the containers to leech into the food, the study’s lead author, Dr. Leonardo Transande, a professor at NYU Langone, told the NY Daily News that heating merely “enhances contamination” and that the chemicals enter the body even regardless of whether they’re heated, only in much smaller increments.

In order to reduce contamination risk, experts recommend that the public avoids heating plastic containers and plastic wrap in the microwave, not to placing any plastic containers in the dishwasher, and avoiding drinking out of plastic bottles marked with the numbers 3, 6 or 7 — numbers which convey the existence of questionable chemicals in the their composition.

As for how such chemicals could find themselves in circulation, Dr. David Agus told CBS This Morning that it’s attributed to the federal agencies regulating the manufacturing of these products and their “notion” that such products are “innocent” until otherwise proven guilty.

There’s this notion that they only react when there’s a problem (…) It’s innocent until proven guilty and that’s an issue.

Under federal law, chemicals do not require testing in order to be administered across large populations.

In other news, an unrelated study published late last year found that the world’s oceans hold an accumulative 270,000 tons of plastic waste — a notion which Adidas must have caught wind of, as they recently announced new shoes made from recycled ocean waste.

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