Dear Sir,

In my opinion, the Hamilton MarketPlace makes and sells the most delicious roasted chicken on the island. However, I will no longer buy it.

The establishment puts said roasted chicken into the all-too-familiar black plastic food containers and sets them under the extremely hot lights, where they are kept for unsuspecting customers. The black plastic containers become so hot that it is extremely difficult to hold in your bare hands.

Beyond Plastic Bermuda, a collaboration between Keep Bermuda Beautiful and the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, has been providing education to the community on behalf of the Government’s 2017 promise of legislation to ban certain single-use plastic products by 2022.

Well, 2022 came and went, and we still do not have that promised legislation.

There are many reasons for banning certain plastic products, but protecting our health may be one of the most important. We do care about our population’s health, don’t we? We say that we do.

Just Google “The dangers to health of using black plastic food containers” and read for yourself. The list of sites that address that question is long and includes one for Beyond Plastics, titled “Why Black Plastic is Bad News”. Search for that article or visit the Beyond Plastics website at beyondplastics.org.

At a time when diseases and negative health conditions are raging, it makes sense to adopt a precautionary approach, especially when making decisions that impact our health. We need to avoid products where there is scientific evidence that those products pose health risks.

Avoiding those black plastic food containers is a real challenge because they are being used and sold to us by many establishments throughout the island. However, I will embrace that challenge, and I encourage others concerned about the many threats to their health to avoid them as well.

Yes, we miss out on that delicious roasted chicken, at least until the containers are no longer used on the island.

KIM SMITH

Pembroke