The first time I went to Russia
was in 2001. At the time I was teaching social anthropology and medical sociology
to nursing students in Finland. They were doing their degree in English and I
was one of the native speaking English lecturers supporting the programme. I
would usually go there two or three times a year and stay for two weeks. It was
on one of these trips that I took the opportunity one weekend to fly to Moscow.
It was an interesting trip. The hotel I stayed in had a ‘matron’ on every floor,
someone who kept an eye on the propriety of the hotel guests. I was hosted by a
young man from the Moscow State University. Sadly, I can no longer recall his
name, but I do recall his enthusiasm for showing me around his great city.
One other thing I remember was him
taking me out for a meal, not to a fancy restaurant, but to the local eatery
and eating my way through a mountain of pancakes and vegetables, and using aluminium
cutlery to do so. I remember feeling slightly anxious as I had a sense that
using aluminium in cooking or anything to do with food could lead to health
problems, particularly dementia. More of which later.
What I didn’t know at the time was
that Russia was once the third largest producer of aluminium in the world.
Today, it still produces over five million tons of aluminium and accounts for ten
per cent of the global production. What I did know at the time was eating a
meal with aluminium cutlery felt very strange and comes close to trying to eat
a meal with plastic knife and forks, something I had to do last week at an
event I was attending.
There is nothing worse than a
plastic knife to cut through something that is meant to be cut by a metal one.
I don’t even like those little blue forks you get with your take away chips, I
would rather use my fingers. What I also didn’t know until last week was that
the NHS used 16 million pieces of plastic cutlery last year. In a fascinating piece
in The Hospital and Catering News (thank you Roy Lilley), it was reported that in
2018 the NHS actually purchased over 196 million items of single use plastic
for catering, including 163 million plastic cups, 15 million straws, 2 million
plastic stirrers and those plastic knives and forks.
That is lot of plastic! Its also
a lot of plastic to get rid of once used! So, it was not surprising that even
with everything Brexit filling our screens and newspapers that the NHS use of
single use plastic became a major news story in its own right. Plastic use is a
political issue. My grandchildren are like miniature Extinction Rebellion activists
and have learnt in school about the damaging effects of plastic and plastic pollution.
They are trying to create plastic-free homes, which is a lot harder than it
sounds. Globally, 350 million tons of plastic are produced each year. That is a
combined weight higher than the weight of humanity, estimated to be 316 tons in
2013. I do like Tiki the Penguin’s measure though: in explaining to children
Tiki talks about the amount of plastic produced each year equalling 30 million
elephants. Half of this plastic is single use plastic.
Plastic is everywhere, and more
worrying are what’s called microplastics. Microplastics are defined as all
forms of plastic less than 5mm. Primary microplastics are to be found in
personal care products and in the microfibres of some clothing. They can also
be a consequence of larger plastic items which have been slowly broken down
into smaller pieces. The average fish and meat eating person eats 70,000
microplastics each year (that’s about 100 bits of microplastic each meal).
Plastic chemicals are known to act as endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruption
is linked to health problems such as some cancers, birth defects and
developmental problems in children.
Like my grandchildren’s efforts
to lead a plastic free life, ridding the NHS of single use plastic is likely to
be equally difficult. However, the NHS Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, issued a
statement in which he said ‘…it’s right that the NHS and our suppliers should
join the national campaign to turn the tide on plastic waste. Doing so will be
good for our environment, for patients and for tax payers who fund our NHS’. He
noted that many of the major retailers operating in hospitals have committed to
cutting their plastic usage starting with straws, stirrers, cups and cutlery. That
said, I didn’t see any evidence of this being translated into practice at the hospital
café I was in last week. Time will tell as to how effective the pledge to stop
the use of single use plastics in hospital catering will be.
And back to aluminium and dementia.
There was research carried out in 1965, that showed a connection between aluminium
and what are called toxic tau tangles in the brain – the consequence of which
is dementia. However, the research was undertaken on rabbits and involved high doses
injected into the rabbits. Although one large study did show high doses of
aluminium in drinking water being linked to the progression of Alzheimer’s in
those who already have the disease, most contemporary research has shown that
this cause and effect is simply not present.
And yesterday I found a really
poignant tweet on my Twitter timeline from a paramedic who had attended a call
out to a man who was clearly a researcher, but was also living with dementia. I
end this week’s blog with her words:
‘Met the most amazing
man yesterday, 6 doctorates, 2 masters, 1 PGCert and 3 undergrads. Such a shame
I met him due to his dementia. Such a great loss for the patient and society as
a whole. Still an amazing man to meet and talk to and a pleasure to help’.
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