Urban myth or wise warning? I received an email from my friend Amanda warning of the dangers of using plastic containers and plastic wrap in microwaves which can be highly toxic and lead to cancer. Also, there were warnings about drinking from plastic bottles of water left in the car over night. Now these 'Erumours' have been around for a while and are fairly difficult to get to the bottom of but my question is this - should we just ignore them just because we can't prove them?
I'm not a fan of the microwave anyway and probably use it once a year to reheat something but for a lot of people, it's a really convenient machine that saves them time. Should they be ditching their plastic containers which are said to release harmful dioxins into their food and switch to glass Pyrex dishes?
I do however always have a bottle of lukewarm water in the car that I drink from before I replace it with another one. Since reading the email, I have to say I've stopped doing it. I'm not a likely candidate for breast cancer anyway but I'm not convinced that plastics when heated don't react with the water.
So is this all nonsense and scare mongering or is there a grain of truth in it? That's for each of you to decide but here's some more info before you make your mind up.
Photograph by Muffet (flickr)
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