by Karina Hunter

Warren educates attendees regarding the dangers of some common household plastics.

Most people are aware of the dangers regarding plastics for food storage when heated in the microwave or washed in the dishwasher but what about the triangular numerical codes on today’s plastics – do you know what they mean?
The answer to this question and many more were provided by Prenatal Programmer Reene Warren at the Family Place Best Start Hub’s Safe Plastics Presentation December 10^th. Warren introduced participants to the meaning of plastics codes, their most common uses, steps which people can take to lower risks of ‘leeching’ and other safety and health concers which they may not have been aware of.  Participants had many questions answered by Warren’s ‘plastics grab bag’ which contained many commonly used items researched by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU) to provide their numerical plastics code as many products have these codes on their packaging challenging consumers in regards to identifying their safe uses. Mother of two, Melissa Chiasson, attended the presentation and felt it had been very informative “I learned a lot, I was surprised to learn how many plastics in my day-to-day life may present a risk to my children”.  Warren emphasized that the goal of this presentation was not to have people leave to discard all plastics in their home “People must weight the risks and make their own choices” said Warren encouraging people to use the information she provided to be educated consumers and apply the knowledge to purchases they would make from ‘this point forward’.