In a letter to Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and other Republican leaders, nine Democrats say the Styrofoam cups and other dining materials could hold chemical components that could cause cancer. The Democrats are upset with the switch to Styrofoam from recyclable materials put into place when Democrats ran the House. I guess they haven't noticed or care that Styrofoam cups are widely used by the rest of us. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...ms-congress-styrofoam-cups-could-cause-cancer
That all you got? Seems your cup runneth dry. I wonder what WebMD would say: "...Tons of plastic, paper and the dreaded Styrofoam are the norm for packing to-go items, with disastrous implications for the planet. In addition to the eco-consequences, disposable plastics and Styrofoam leach chemicals into food..." http://blogs.webmd.com/health-ehome/2009/09/better-ways-to-box-up-take-out.html Oh, but I forgot that the conservative party has nothing to do with conservation, or science in general for that matter. It is just waiting for end of days and rapture and all that.
Maybe they are concerned as DHMO is used in the manufacture of styrofoam. What are some uses of Dihydrogen Monoxide? Despite the known dangers of DHMO, it continues to be used daily by industry, government, and even in private homes across the U.S. and worldwide. Some of the well-known uses of Dihydrogen Monoxide are: as an industrial solvent and coolant, in nuclear power plants, by the U.S. Navy in the propulsion systems of some older vessels, by elite athletes to improve performance, in the production of Styrofoam in biological and chemical weapons manufacture, in the development of genetically engineering crops and animals, as a spray-on fire suppressant and retardant, in so-called "family planning" or "reproductive health" clinics, as a major ingredient in many home-brewed bombs, as a byproduct of hydrocarbon combustion in furnaces and air conditioning compressor operation, in cult rituals, by the Church of Scientology on their members and their members' families (although surprisingly, many members recently have contacted DHMrg to vehemently deny such use), by both the KKK and the NAACP during rallies and marches, by members of Congress who are under investigation for financial corruption and inappropriate IM behavior, by the clientele at a number of bath houses in New York City and San Francisco, historically, in Hitler's death camps in Nazi Germany, and in prisons in Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Libya, Iraq and Iran, in World War II prison camps in Japan, and in prisons in China, for various forms of torture, during many recent religious and ethnic wars in the Middle East, by many terrorist organizations including al Quaeda, in community swimming pools to maintain chemical balance, in day care centers, purportedly for sanitary purposes, by software engineers, including those producing DICOM programmer APIs and other DICOM software tools including DICOM routers, by popular computer science professors, by the semi-divine King Bhumibol of Thailand and his many devoted young working girls in Bangkok, by the British Chiropractic Association and the purveyors of the bogus treatments that the BCA promotes, by commodities giant Trafigura in their well-publicized and widely-known toxic-waste dumping activities in Ivory Coast, in animal research laboratories, and in pesticide production and distribution. http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html#USES
Maybe they should have passed a law against using this stuff in the food industry to protect us all if they have such concerns. Until they do, let them be exposed to the same dangers as the public.
Personally i believe we should be serving politicians their drinks in old cannisters of rat poison..... that way instead of being left wondering whether or not chemicals are going in their drink, we would actually be hoping some chemicals seep into their drink.....
Styrene and Styrofoam are good packaging materials and are fairly safe until you apply heat then you get DMHO leaching how much heat is widely debated. Any chemists on here prepared to fill us in on DMHO release.