Plastic bags kill five people a year in San Francisco
THE purge on plastic bags is claiming lives. Ramesh Ponnuru writes in Bloomberg:
In a 2011 study, four researchers examined reusable bags in California and Arizona and found that 51 percent of them contained coliform bacteria. The problem appears to be the habits of the reusers. Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag. When bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold…Klick and Wright estimate that the San Francisco ban results in a 46 percent increase in deaths from foodborne illnesses, or 5.5 more of them each year. They then run through a cost-benefit analysis employing the same estimate of the value of a human life that the Environmental Protection Agency uses when evaluating regulations that are supposed to save lives. They conclude that the anti-plastic-bag policies can’t pass the test — and that’s before counting the higher health-care costs they generate.
You’d wash the plastic bags, but you’d be using lots of precious clean water. In any case, plastic bags are eco-friendly and natural. Go to any park and lots of them are hanging from trees ready to be picked…
Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
