Bottles that contain alcohol could be carrying toxins too
A glass of wine a day is good for you the doctors say, but what does it mean for our planet? According to a new study, the bottle your favorite wine or liquor comes in could be harming our environment.
Andrew Turner, of the University of Plymouth in England, recently conducted a study on nearly 100 bottles of alcohol. Of those bottles, 2 dozen were “enameled”, meaning the bottles contained “images, patterns, logos, text and/or barcodes of a single color or multiple colors…” Half (12) of the two dozen bottles tested were found to have enamels that according to Food & Wine were “based wholly or partly on compounds of either or both lead and cadmium” and at “potentially harmful levels.” It’s important to note here that the toxins were not deemed to be dangerous to humans.
Researchers are however warning consumers that the results of the study should be a “concern from an environmental and, potentially, occupational exposure perspective.” The United States has limits for toxins in packing known as the Toxins in Packaging Legislation, and the amount of toxins that could be released from these enameled bottles could exceed those levels. Exceeding the set levels would put them into “hazardous” territory.
Andrew Turner contacted some of the alcohol manufacturers regarding his findings, and they were less than committed to making changes to their process, telling Turner “the bottles they use are imported or manufactured in a different country than that producing the beverage…” Ensuring that the products we use and the containers they come in are toxin free is no small ask of manufacturers, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask.
To read the full Food & Wine article over on their website, click here: https://bit.ly/2XR93Fo