In digest #935 "Environmental toxins and plastics....", wolfcreek1 wrote: "On all the holistic animal health discussion lists I'm on and according to our homeopathic vet, one is never to feed or water an animal in plastic, aluminium, or galvanized materials. Same goes for humans. The plastics and PVC's leach out the materials they were made with, thereby contaminating our liquids and foods. It used to be stainless steel and glass were the only things you could cook with, now I understanding stainless leaches cooper and nickel when heated, which can lead to toxicity of these minerals."
For sure there is a justifiable concern when it comes to using aluminium cookware, but stainless steel? Are there actual studies showing significant levels of leached copper or nickel? Are we talking atoms per litre? Don't people wear copper bracelets as an arthritis aid, and for that matter, is there any copper in SS? How many homeopaths/naturopaths that warn against using something as proven inert as SS, also sell or recommend some brand of "colloidal minerals" that, if you read the list, contain small but detectable levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, aluminium, arsenic, thorium, uranium (yes, uranium!), and more goodies like those? In far greater amounts than any trace coming off SS implements. Seems to be a certain consistency problem among some alternative health advisers! Guilt by association in the area of plastics is another problem - how does plasticiser-filled PVC make an inert plastic like HDPE dangerous? All plastics are not created equal. Let's not go overboard, folks. regards, Kevin Nolan
