To incinerate or not, that's the burning question

Just yesterday, EcoWaste Coalition held a seminar on “the precautionary principle” (PP) at the auditorium of the Occupational Safety and Health Center in Quezon City. The resource person was Dr. Paul Connett, a zero waste advocate and expert in environmental chemistry and toxicology. Over the past 24 years, Dr. Connett’s research on waste management has taken him to 49 states in the United States and 52 other countries, where he has given over 2,000 pro bono public presentations, according to Manny Calonzo, EcoWaste president.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose passionate concerns include the protection of the environment and the protection of consumers from unsafe products and, yes, environment, says of Paul Connett: “He is the only person I know who can make waste interesting.”

So interesting it doesn’t sound like he’s talking “dirty.” Excerpts from the hot paper he presented on incineration:

Burning trivia: “Since the late 19th century, incineration has been used to get rid of domestic waste, as well as to generate heat and electricity. Advocates of this technology claim today that it is safe, contributes to fighting global warming, and should be included as an alternative to generating electricity that decreases our dependence on the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nuclear energy.

“Opponents of incineration argue that the technology is not safe, that both the claims of the production of energy and the reduction in global warming have been exaggerated and that there is a far better alternative strategy for handling waste than either landfilling or incineration: otherwise known as the zero waste strategy. A number of safety issues have been raised by citizens and independent scientists. These include air emissions and ash disposal. A relatively small number of health studies have been conducted in the vicinity of incinerators (and even fewer near ash landfills)...

“If the harm is real, is it serious?

“Yes. We are talking about a plausible increase in lung disease and heart disease that can lead to higher death rates in urban areas. As far as dioxin emissions are concerned, either emitted on the surface of nanoparticles or in the gas phase, the major concern is their accumulation in the human food chain. … one quart of cow’s milk would deliver the same amount of dioxin contained in air breathed in by a human in eight months, if that person breathed the same air as falling on the grass consumed by the cow (Connett and Webster, 1987). In one day, a grazing cow puts into its body the equivalent dioxin to a human breathing the air for 14 years (McLaughlin, 1995). This problem is compounded for humans by virtue of the fact that once dioxin has been consumed, it remains in our bodies for a very long length of time. However, a woman has a way of getting rid of dioxin that a man doesn’t have: It is called having a baby! So in the nine months of pregnancy, the mother can shift much of the dioxin to the fetus — dioxins she has stored in her body fat for 20-30 years. This is serious because dioxins can interfere with fetal development by interfering with hormonal signals. Today, in industrialized countries, we have far too much dioxin in our food, in our bodies, and in our babies. That is why the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2003 recommended that parents encourage young girls to limit the animal fat content of the food they eat, long before they reach pregnancy (IOM, 2003).”

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Egg-citing info

Now, here’s something to egg-cite you:

Dear Consumerline:

I heard that eating eggs every day is good for the health.  Is it true?  What kind of egg and how many eggs should we eat a day? Can a person with a heart condition or high blood pressure eat eggs, too?

Mel Tongco

Dr. Angel Respicio Jr., nutrition adviser at The Sleeplab, Hawaii Medical Center-West, gives this reply/prescription:

Dear Mel, 

I love replying to this query. Yes, eggs are very healthy, especially native eggs from cage-free chickens. Eating eggs every day is very healthy. The heart is a muscle and protein is needed to maintain its integrity. The best protein comes from egg (6.3 grams per egg, we need at least 40 grams). The good cholesterol in the egg yolk is about 215 mg. (balut - 350 mg., 20 shrimps -150 mg.). We need 4,000 mg. daily that is why we can never overeat eggs.

The cholesterol in the egg yolk is the same cholesterol found in breast milk. Mineralocorticoids come from cholesterol — they help regulate blood pressure. Glucocorticoids come from cholesterol — they regulate blood sugar. Therefore, people with high blood pressure and high blood sugar will benefit from eating eggs. The only bad cholestrol comes from powdered eggs and powdered milk. Powdered milk is added to skim milk and reduced fat milk to add body to tasteless milk.

The incredible egg yolk provides the following: calcium, carotenes, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, panthotenic acid, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B 12, vitamins A, D, E, and K, healthy fats including omega-3 fatty acid and the brain- boosting DHA and EPA.

It is impossible to overeat cholesterol because the liver will adjust its daily production (biosynthetic capacity) based on your actual intake (Dr. David Kritchevsky).

Cholesterol is not a fat, it is a form of alcohol. It has no calories, therefore it won’t make you fat.

DOC JUN

Nothing like getting it straight from the eggsperts!

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