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Drinking your next cup of coffee out of a Styrofoam Cup? Read this first.

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A rise in the cafe culture and the popularity of ‘food-on-the-go’ has increased the need to use disposable containers. With success and business opportunities comes responsibility especially for sustainable solutions- be it using eco-friendly products, recyclable materials or products that are not hazardous to health.

Do you know that drinking from a Styrofoam cup can give you thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities and even cancer!

Let’s look at how Styrofoam can impact your health

Styrofoam’s Impact on Health
Styrofoam is a brand name for the material, polystyrene (PS). It is denoted by a #6 or PS in the triangle on the bottom of food packaging.

Styrofoam drinking leach Styrofoam into the liquids they contain. The cups apparently lose weight during the time they are in use. The migration of styrene from a polystyrene cup containing cold or hot beverages has been observed to be as high as 0.025% for a single use. That may seem like a rather low number, until you work it this way: If you drink water, tea, or coffee from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years, you may have consumed about one Styrofoam cup-worth of styrene along with your beverages.

Effect of styrene on your health
Once styrene gets into your food or drink—and then into you—what does it do? Studies suggest that styrene mimics estrogens in the body and can therefore disrupt normal hormone functions, possibly contributing to thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities, and other hormone-related problems, as well as breast cancer and prostate cancer.

The estrogenicity of styrene is thought to be comparable to that of Bisphenol A, another potent estrogen mimic from the world of plastics. Low levels of Bisphenol A have been found to reduce the sperm count in rats.
Styrene is considered a possible human carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Evidence already shows that styrene causes cancer in animals.

On the other hand disposables such as Element tableware are green and safe and have the following accreditations, all of which are reviewed every term:
• ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Standard
• ISO 14855 – Determination of Aerobic Biodegradability
• EN 13432 or ASTM D6400 – Standard Specification for Compostability (EN13432 - Leading European Standard; ASTM 6400 - Leading American Standard)

It has the following attributes:
• Does not stain the food as the corn fibres have been technologically assimilated. There might be a negligible thin layer of corn starch powder on certain products due to the nature of the production process. This layer is food grade standard in accordance to US FDA standards and is 100% safe for food contact.
• Does not leach even at temperature higher than 150 degree Celsius
In order to penetrate and convince the international market, we have under our belt a bevy of international certificates (see accreditations) which fully acclaims us on the following. Please see the "home" page of our website and our brochure for a full accreditation list

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