 I just came upon another study about toxic plastics lurking in your kitchen and I just need to tell you about it. I've talked for years now about the seven deadly disruptors and plastics are right up there. But there are compounds in plastics that you really need to know about. So let's talk about one of the obvious ones first, bisphenols. Most people know about bisphenol A, BPA. They've been banned from most of the countries in the world. There's a kind of partial ban on BPA now. But these are in plastics, they're in reusable food and beverage containers, they're in most water bottles, the lining of food cans, eyeglass lenses, thermal paper receipts and plastic water pipes. Now unfortunately there has been a movement to replace these with bisphenol S, bisphenol Z, but we don't think they're actually any safer than the replacements. What that means for you in general is you really want to stay away from plastic containers, plastic that you take your food home with, plastic water bottles. Now why are these so bad? All of what we're going to talk about, it comes down to most of these plastics behave as what are called endocrine disruptors, sometimes called estrogen mimicking compounds, testosterone mimicking compounds. And they act as if you're actually intaking hormones. And we now know that these unfortunately not only affect you, but they affect your kids. They've been associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome, they've been associated with depression, hyperactivity, inattention, you name it, it affects it. We know now that these plastics affect sexual function and if you've been paying attention, you've noticed that men's sperm counts have dropped by about 50% in the last 30 years. Fertility rates are plummeting in America and we've got to lay the blame on our need for these plastics in our life. Now there's plenty of more blame to go around. The alcophenols that are used in latex paints, pesticides, personal care products and different kind of plastics such as UV stabilizers also act in very much the same way. They stabilize your PVC in water pipes and flooring. They're in personal care products, they're in cosmetics, they're in dust control agents. And I know you don't want dust sticking to your mop, but believe it or not that mop or that spray is loaded with these compounds. They believe it or not lower your sperm count, result in infertility. They disrupt prostate development if the mother gets it in her and there's associated high thing risk of male and female breast cancers all to dust your house with. Not a good idea. Now one of my personal infamous troublemakers are phallates. Phallates are made to promote flexibility and reduce brittleness in plastics. These are in almost all of our film wraps when you're buying a package in the grocery store that comes in plastic. And it's flexible like over your meat, over your vegetables, over your salad. The odds are it's loaded with phallates. So what phallates are incredibly damaging to our fetus, ourselves, believe it or not, cord blood of most babies born in the United States is loaded with phallates. So what? It actually affects brain development. It affects social behavior all because of ingesting these products. The sad thing is that these are everywhere particularly in the grocery store. And one of my first recommendations is please shop in a grocery store that actually has a butcher department and ask for whatever you're buying to be wrapped in butcher paper. That's one of the easiest ways to prevent exposure to this. Please buy your vegetables, your lettuce as whole. Get a salad spinner. We have two in our house. They are great fun for washing your lettuce and then drying them. And a lot of the salad spinners, you can get your aggressions out. We have a pull type like with a lawn mower, which is great fun. And we have one that you push down, which is also great if you feel like beating up on somebody. It's great fun and you prevent that exposure to those sorts of plastics. So those are something you can accomplish. Now, the other things that you have to be aware of is even not the cling wrap but the plastic containers that you took home and you put in your microwave, you're going to transfer those plastics into the food you're heating. So please, please, please, even if you take it home in one of those containers, transfer it to a real plate, not a plastic plate, to cook your food in your microwave. It's an easy thing to do and it'll save you the exposure. Your fluorinated compounds are in stain-resistant clothing, they're in food contact wrappers, they're in carpets, they're in paints, they're in most of our cookware and they act as poofas. Most of you now know Teflon is a no-no. If you're going to get a pan, use a ceramic coated or enamel coated pan or a diamond coated pan. But please stay away from any poofa coated cookware. Now that goes along with your plastic utensils. Many of us got used to using plastic utensils for stirring things in Teflon pans. Please stop doing that. You're transferring these plastic materials, these endocrine disruptors to your food and in to you. Not to mention these microplastics are now in us that aren't supposed to be there. That brings me to the next point. Please, please, please ditch your plastic cutting board. These are loaded with these endocrine disruptors and every time you chop, you are making those available to be swallowed by you. That disrupts your microbiome, that disrupts your hormone function and is associated with increased risk of cancer. Not exactly what we want. So get out, find your old wooden cutting boards. Yes, do clean them properly and if you're worried about them, they're actually quite cheap and just when it starts looking interesting, throw it away and get yourself a new one. But please ditch your plastic cutting boards. It's another safe thing you can do. There's been associations with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There's been association with kidney, testicular, ovarian, and breast cancer, all because of these PUFAs. So please get rid of them. All right, brominated flame retardants, BFRs, they're in wire coating. They're unfortunately in most of our carpets. They're in most of our furniture. If you have woven furniture, they've been treated with flame retardants to be safe. Unfortunately, these are some of the biggest troublemakers. Believe it or not, the Stockholm Convention allows for some BFRs and plastic materials for recycling, but they have been shown to affect psychomotor and attention related IQ performance in children. So maybe your kid's crawling around on your carpet and sitting on your sofas that are cloth coated that have flame retardants on it may be part of the reason your kids are so hard to control. Now, how about dioxin? Hopefully, most everyone now knows that dioxin is a really toxic substance that was used in the production of plastic products. And when plastic products with BFRs are incinerated or heated into new products, you produce dioxin. So beware when something says that this is a recycled product. I know recycling is good for the earth and all that, but it may in fact have dioxin in it. Dioxin exposures affect brain development, they disrupt your thyroid function and your immune system function and are associated with multiple cancers. So be careful when you're using recycled plastics. You may inadvertently being exposed to dioxin. And quite frankly, there has never been a safe level of dioxin established. In other words, none is the only safe level. Finally, UV stabilizers, ultraviolet stabilizers, these are chemical additives that are used in plastic building materials, automotive parts, waxes and paints to prevent them from deteriorating when exposed to light. Believe it or not, the Stockholm Convention lists a compound called UV-328 as a persistent organic pollutant and should be banned. So unfortunately, these UV stabilizers are used in food packages to prevent spoilage and unfortunately, they've been found in household dust. And here's the bitter irony. You're sweeping up your household dust using a spray to reduce dust and you're doubling your exposure to these chemicals. So these chemicals in the same way disrupt intercom function. Sadly, we are surrounded by these intercom disruptors. So get rid of your plastic cutting boards. Please go to the butcher shop and ask for your meats or chicken or fish to be wrapped in butcher paper. Please, if you're bringing something home from a takeout, make sure it isn't coming in a styrofoam or plastic container. Ask for paper. Ask for paper to take your food home from a restaurant. And please, if you do take it home in plastic, transfer it to a glass container. Stop having Tupperware parties. Use glass containers, microwave in glass containers. Get the wood chopping block. Finally, what are you going to do about plastic water bottles? Well, thankfully, there are several companies that now sell water in glass water bottles. There are companies that sell it in aluminum or stainless steel. This is available and you can make those smart choices. You can get glass water bottles at Costco. Plastic straws. Who doesn't like a plastic straw? Opt for paper or stainless steel straws. It's easy to do. Ditch the plastic utensils. Please. I know. They're so nice. They're only a dollar and you can't resist them. Please get yourself some wooden utensils. Yeah, they'll wear out. Get yourself another new one. Also please use bamboo or wooden party utensils that you can get bamboo paper plates or regular paper plates. Try to avoid the obvious plastic plates and plastic spoons and plastic forks and knives. As I wrote about in gut check, a company, Ziploc, their bags are phallate free. They're the only ones that I know of that are phallate free. Frankly, I do have Ziplocs in my home after learning that, but you're still much better off using a glass container for storing almost everything you have. If you look at your plastics and you see the recycling codes, three PVC, six polystyrene, and seven other, that's a very good indication that this is a recycled plastic and there's probably a very good chance that there will be dioxin in that container. Again, there is no safe dioxin level. Become an educated consumer. If you're going to look at plastic, look for the codes. They're usually on the bottom. Sometimes they're on the side. Sometimes in our efforts to do good and recycle our plastic, we're recycling and increasing some of these toxins in harmful endocrine disruptors. Now, even if you're using something like a Ziploc, please do not reheat anything in plastic. It will increase your exposure to these compounds. Four amazing episodes just like this one. Watch now. I was drinking eight Diet Cokes a day and wondering why I was a big fat guy because I was constantly hungry because my brain was constantly telling me, what the heck are you doing? Go find some sugar, you idiot.