• Question: I heard that there are some carcinogenic chemicals in plastic. Do you think we should reduce the amount of plastic made products because of this?

    Asked by 284drud47 to Anne, Florence, Mark, Neil, Sinead on 15 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Florence McCarthy

      Florence McCarthy answered on 15 Nov 2015:

      A lot is recycled these days to reduce the amount of plastic used and produced and many places wrap in paper now. The main reason for plastic packaging is if products have to travel so buying local would limit the amount needed.

    • Photo: Sinead Balgobin

      Sinead Balgobin answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      This is one very good reason for reducing the amount of plastics made, but the danger of being affected by carcinogenic chemicals from, say, water bottles, is actually very low.

      More pressing is the fact that we make most plastics from chemicals found in oil and natural gas, which as you know are running out quickly. Plastic also does not degrade quickly, and when we throw it away, it will just sit there for millions of years. I think the environmental reasons are more important in our reduction of plastic production. Recycling is a good start!

      There are some instances when plastic is the best, or only material for the job. But for the most common items we throw away, like bags and bottles, there are much better choices to make.

    • Photo: Neil Day

      Neil Day answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      We should certainly continue research into plastics safer, though I think it will be very hard to get the food and drinks industry to go back to use of glass bottles at this stage as they are much more expensive to make and are heavier.
      In the pharmaceutical industry, if you are using plastic containers for medicines, especially liquids you have to assess the risk of any chemicals being extrated and leaching into your product. if the risk is high than we do studies to be sure that the product is safe

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