3, 6 and 7

I had the chance to go to a lecture at the Gilda's Club in Seattle last night. The topic was "Cancer and your Environment". This particular lecture had to do with food; eating it, storing it and cooking it. I learned a lot of very good information, but one of the most disturbing things I got out of the lecture was this series of numbers; 3, 6, 7. With all the discussion of the many things in our environment that are either known or suspected to cause cancer, these were the most bothersome. These are the three plastics that have the most known or suspected carcinogens in them.

Everyone uses plastic every day. It is convenient and we Americans are nothing if not addicted to convenience. Not all plastics are created equally and though none are good for the environment, some are considered okay for people and some are not so okay.

On the bottom of every plastic container, bottle etc is a number and apparently 3, 6 and 7 are the ones to avoid if possible. When I left the lecture and got in my car, I went to take a drink out of the water bottle that I have carried around for the last year and a half. It is special to me as it is from Seattle University and I like to have something from my alma mater. I thought to glance at the bottom of it before I took a drink. Number 7. Unbelievable. I have been carrying it around filling it with water at every opportunity and using it at work and everywhere else for over a year.

Is that plastic bottle the reason why I got breast cancer? Probably not. To be fair, it is probably a whole collection of little things that I have done or not done, been exposed to or not, a little bad luck and maybe some genetic mutations to boot. I doubt that there is one reason why people get cancer and I am no different. That being said, I am still going to throw out that water bottle. If I can eliminate one potential thing that might cause a recurrence then I am going to do it. I am also going to go through all of our plastic ware that my family uses and get rid of anything that says 3, 6 or 7. Why take the chance?