An interesting question (Dustin BAUTISTA, Guam) :
"Hello and Greetings from the beautiful Island of Guam, Dr. Van Cotthem:
After following your blog and Facebook page, I am inspired to try installing a bottle tower garden at one of my community garden projects. The "How to" was written very well and easy enough to follow along and I thank you for sharing this wonderful information with the world.
One question keeps coming up from those I present this idea to -- which is regarding the possibility of chemicals and toxins leaching out of the plastic and into the food itself. Have you taken this into consideration before going forward with the experiment and have you tested the resulting produce for traces of any plastic ingredients? I only know that BPA, PVC, and PS plastics are not considered as food-grade plastics when it comes to storage, but I could not find any information regarding chemical leaching as it regards to growing food in these plastic containers.
I humbly await your insight and advice.
"
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MY REPLY
Dear Dustin,
There is a worldwide fear for a number of “modern” things, like climate change, GMOs and plastics. About most of these “potential dangers” the general public is poorly or even badly informed, sometimes mislead by publications in popular magazines, where writers without proper expertise transform these “potential dangers” into a sensation, a hype.
Simply ask for a 100 % scientific proof, a publication by real experts showing proof of the danger, and you will never get a proper answer.
Considering that almost every country has a Food and Drugs Administration, responsible for food safety, and considering that these FDAs are very severe about the import and export of food and drinks, one cannot imagine that these specialists would not be concerned by the marketing of food and drinks in plastic containers (pots, bottles, boxes, ...). Suppose “dangerous” substances could really be leaching at normal ambient temperatures from some of the plastic bottles (see different chemical composition of plastics), wouldn’t they forbid the marketing of drinks in such containers ? What about the alcoholic drinks in plastic bottles ? Aren’t these alcohols dissolvents for such chemicals ?
Up to now, I never have seen such a decision. Knowing that some of the soft drinks are extremely corrosive, they would certainly enhance the leaching of those toxic substances, e.g. BPAs or BPSs. And yet, those soft drinks are sold all over the world for decades already.
Who is blaming the marketing of such drinks ? Don’t tell me that the entire world is so corrupt that all the FDAs accept it, although aware of the “potential danger”.
So, isn’t it strange that, as soon as we start using the same plastic bottles for growing fresh food, people get excited by the possibility of leaching toxic chemicals from the bottles?
No, I did not test the resulting produce for traces of any plastic ingredients myself, because I am not a chemical expert. I am only a botanist, seeing that none of my plant species grown in bottles showed negative symptoms of leaching chemicals.
Anyway, as long as all the specialists-experts of the world scrutinize every day the production and sales of food and drinks in plastic containers, as long as they allow millions of people to eat and drink from plastic containers, I will believe that there is no danger for public health.
Therefore, I will continue to promote my towers of bottles, pots and buckets for the production of fresh food for the hungry and poor. In the meanwhile, let me invite the scientific experts to answer my simple question : "If BPAs (or BPSs) are leaching from plastic bottles or other plastic containers into the soil or potting mix, are these "dangerous, toxic" substances also absorbed by the crops we are growing in them ?
Anyway, should tomorrow a scientific publication show clearly that the “potential dangers” are REAL, I will immediately apologize and close my blogs and websites down.
In the meanwhile, my family, my chickens, my birds will continue to enjoy the fresh vegetables and fruits from my tower gardens. And I hope that the one billion of hungry and malnourished will get a chance to install their own container garden, using bottles, pots, buckets, drums, sacks and the like for production of fresh food at home.
For this is the most simple and inexpensive way to get rid of that terrible hunger, a real shame for the developed world.
Kind regards,
Willem