Sunday, August 12, 2007

This job makes me paranoid

Generally speaking, I enjoy my times filling in at Tech Director at Living on Earth. The people are nice, and the show is usually a great learning experience. The only real problem is that it makes you paranoid in a real hurry.

The last time I filled in (about eight months ago) I learned how horrifically unsafe most of the United States' chicken is. I love chicken, so I was spooked. I managed to ask the expert we were interviewing about those pre-cooked chicken strips that are popular now, and she said those were safe from the problems the interview was about, but were also commonly having problems with a different kind of bacteria. ARGH! Fortunately she said that microwaving them for two minutes on high does the trick. WHEW!

This time I learned about bisphenol-A which is a plastic compound commonly found in hard plastic food containers...like those Nalgene water bottles, or the water cooler's tank...and in the lining of soup cans. It's been around for about 100 years, so it's EVERYWHERE. And just now they're learning that this crap really screws up child development while in-utero and in the early years. It's because it can mimic the effects of estrogen. God only knows what else it can do in adults, too. The takeaway I got was to NEVER microwave food in tupperware; nuke it in a porcelain bowl instead.

And don't get me started on the global warming stories we inevitably do each week because there's so much news happening about it these days. Living in a coastal city isn't so attractive anymore, lemme tell ya.

I was joking with Eileen, the show's Senior Editor, that we should open every billboard with "It's Living on Earth and WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!"

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