Eating hot food packed in plastic bags will bring harms such as "reduced human reproductive ability, gender confusion, and shortened genitals". Recently, a university in Guangxi posted a "warm reminder" at the door of the student dormitory, promoting the various harms that eating food packed in plastic bags will bring to the human body. Experts said that the school's reminder is not alarmist. If non-food packaging bags are used, the endocrine disruptors will cause certain harm to the human body because of the complex ingredients contained in them and the migration amount exceeding the national standard.

Weibo explosion: Eating packaged food will cause shortened genitals

On December 1, a micro-friend broke the news on Weibo that the warm reminder placed at the door of the student dormitory by the Dormitory Management Department of Guangxi Vocational and Technical College is very "bright", and posted a blurry photo, the content of which is "Warm reminder: the harm of packaged food" and related content written in black on red paper, signed by "Dormitory Management Department".

This "warm reminder" states that when heated, plastic bags will release harmful substances such as plasticizers. The harm of plasticizers to the human body: reduce human reproductive ability; increase the risk of cardiovascular disease; ingestion can cause cancer; cause gender confusion and shorten genitals; plasticizers are 20 times more toxic than melamine. At the same time, plasticizers also harm the environment: cause white pollution; pollute the surrounding land and water quality; attract flies and rats; affect the hygiene of the dormitory area.

School: Searching and copying relevant content online is intended to prohibit white pollution

Li, the head of the dormitory management department of Guangxi Vocational and Technical College, said that this "warm reminder" was copied and posted at the door of the student dormitory by the student cadres of the school's dormitory management committee after searching for plastic bags and content related to plasticizers on the Internet.

"It is mainly to cooperate with the logistics department and ask students not to use white plastic bags to reduce white pollution in schools." Li said that some students use plastic bags to carry rice or vegetables to the dormitory. The student cadres of the dormitory management committee "out of a sense of justice" remind students not to use plastic bags to carry hot food, which will affect the hygiene of the dormitory area.

Experts: It is not alarmist. It is recommended to use less or not.

"This reminder is not alarmist. If you use unsafe non-food packaging plastic bags of unknown origin to carry hot food, a certain amount of plasticizers and other chemical components in the plastic bags will migrate into the hot food. In the long run, you may ingest excessive amounts of plasticizers, which will affect human health." On the 25th, Chen Xingle, chief physician of the Food Safety Risk Monitoring and Evaluation Institute of the Autonomous Region Center for Disease Control and Prevention and chief technical expert in nutrition and food hygiene, said this in an interview with reporters.

Plasticizers are also plasticizers. They are added to plastic polymers to increase the plasticity of plastics. There are more than 100 types. Some phthalates have endocrine disrupting effects. Long-term and large-scale intake will affect reproduction and development, and endanger male reproductive capacity. Chen Xingle said that phthalates are plasticizers that can be used in food packaging materials. The amount of plasticizer dissolved in qualified food plastic packaging materials must not exceed the national standard. China's "Sanitary Standards for the Use of Additives in Food Containers and Packaging Materials" (GB9685-2008) strictly stipulates that food containers and food packaging materials using phthalates must not come into contact with oily foods and infant foods. The maximum residual amounts of di(alpha;-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) in food and food additives are 1.5mg/kg, 9.0mg/kg and 0.3mg/kg respectively. It is consistent with the regulations of developed countries in the world.

Chen Xingle said that the use of plastic products containing plasticizers is very common in daily life, so plasticizers are widely present in the environment, and extremely small amounts of DEHP and other phthalates exist in the air and water. Under normal circumstances, the probability of such substances being inhaled into the human body is extremely low, and there is no obvious impact on human health. Even if they are inhaled into the human body, they can be excreted through human urine or feces. There is currently no evidence that DEHP and DINP are accumulative.

"But the use of non-food packaging bags, because of the complex ingredients contained in them, the migration amount exceeds the national standard, and endocrine disruptors will cause certain harm to the human body." Chen Xingle suggested that for the sake of one's own health and the beauty of the environment, try not to use plastic bags to hold food. Even if you have to use them, you should use food plastic products that meet national standards and pass the inspection; when office workers use plastic lunch boxes to pack lunch, they should prepare glass bowls or ceramic plates in the office, pour the lunch in the plastic lunch box into the glass bowl or ceramic plate and heat it in the microwave, and do not heat it directly in the plastic lunch box, so as to reduce and eliminate the migration of plasticizers, enjoy food safely, and improve health.

Plasticizers, also known as plasticizers, are polymer material additives widely used in industry. Adding this substance in plastic processing can increase its flexibility and make it easier to process, and it can be legally used for industrial purposes. Since May 2011, six phthalate plasticizers, including DEHP, DINP, DNOP, DBP, DMP, and DEP, have been detected in Taiwanese food, and DIDP has been detected in medicines. As of June 8, 961 foods in Taiwan have been found to contain plasticizers. On June 1, the Ministry of Health issued an emergency announcement, listing phthalates (also called phthalates) as non-food substances that may be illegally added to food and a list of food additives that are easily abused. (Reporter Wu Yongzhi)

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