Recently I ate dinner in Manhattan at one of the hot new midtown joints noted more for celebrity sightings than the food. It's the brainchild of a big magazine editor's swaggering vision. That night's clientele featured a gaggle of ladies with lips inflated enough to send them air born were it not for the massive jewels and sequined blouses weighing them down.
The previous day I had read in the New York Times about this restaurant's salad made with Laughing Bird shrimp, farmed organically in the Caribbean and therefore very p.c. and delicious.
I ordered the shrimp salad and for my green taste buds was rewarded with a quarter -sized jagged opaque shard of plastic hidden among the tiny sea creatures. Since it was nestled in a tangle of shredded jicama, I didn't notice this until it was in my mouth. I thought that it was a shell. Luckily I spit it out before the plastic perforated one of my essential organs. I turned it over to the waiter who sent over a very apologetic manager who then comped us for an appetizer and deserts. In truth they should have treated us for everything or offered a bottle of Dom Perignon. If I had swallowed the plastic, it would have made for a nice lawsuit. And the ship that launched a thousand gossip column items would have sunk.
At least I discovered that piece of plastic before swallowing. But what about the components of plastic and chemicals that we all ingest daily in our water and food and inhale in our atmosphere? That's the bigger question. BPA's. for example,used in food packaging cause a range of health problems including some kinds of cancer.
Because of my husband's death from myeloma, I know cancer all too well. As a board member of the International Myeloma Foundation, I have seen reports from IMF chairman, Brian Durie M.D., pointing to a link between environmental toxins and genetic factors that may make some people more likely to get this incurable cancer of the bone marrow cells. He also cites a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine that found that there are more cases of myeloma among younger first responders to the 9/11 horror than would normally be expected.
The EU has a program called REACH that regulates new chemicals coming on to the market . The U.S. refuses to join this review process. The chemical industry lobbyists either shout louder than environmental groups or pour more money into their cause.
One of my close friends, Blythe Danner, lost her husband to oral cancer. She and her children have set up the Bruce Paltrow Fund of the Oral Cancer Foundation. Now on the boards of many environmental groups including the Union of Concerned Scientists, Blythe was one of the earliest recyclers I know and has been active in environmental causes for over 30 years. Every time I am tempted to just toss a plastic food container in a trash can because I don't feel like rinsing it out, I see Blythe telling me to put it in the recycling bin. Maybe if we all picture a friend's face in our mind, we'd be better about doing our part.
It is time for each of us who has lost someone dear to cancer to get on the environmental bandwagon. Cancer and environmental organizations need to team up to combat powerful industrial lobbies. We are running out of time in this battle as cancer becomes more prevalent. It's the moment for us to renew our commitment to getting rid of toxins in the air and water surrounding us. It's not that hard to spot a chunk of plastic that found its way onto our plate. But it's damn hard to know which plastic and chemical poisons are assaulting our bodies every day.
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