Food containers that endanger your health
By Leonie Ruhland
A bunch of kids is innocently enjoying yummy fruits out of a Styrofoam box under the shade of a palm tree. What they don’t know is that this food can seriously jeopardize their health.
Styrofoam is a brand name given to the material called polystyrene foam, basically known for take away cups, plates, and container. It weights almost nothing and it is insulating, which makes it practical to take away cold or hot food.
The practical aspect of Styrofoam is over shadowed once you look closely at its components: Styrene presents a great threat to our health; it causes nausea, dizziness, headaches, and a lack of concentration; it is also under suspicion of being a carcinogen. This threat is even higher when the material is heated. A simple hot coffee inside a Styrofoam cup already can damage your health.
Yet, worse is that it is based on petroleum, which is a liquid subproduct, non-sustainable, and a heavy polluter of the environment.
Styrofoam can take over a million years to decompose.
Another huge issue is that those food containers are often dumped into the environment as litter, and animals such as our beloved dogs and cats eat not only the leftovers, but also little pieces of the Styrofoam, that can cause serious blockades of their digestive system.
The smartest way to avoid such a risk of leaking hazardous chemicals into food is simply to reject Styrofoam completely.
Help your health and environment: Ask for cardboard containers the next time you buy your take-away.
