Q&A. Cancerous Coffee Cup Conundrum
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 01.13.06
Q. “A student in my class gave me a Christmas coffee mug filled with candy. Although the gesture was sweet, the mug has a sticker that says the mug contains material that can cause cancer. What do I do with it now? I don't want to throw out a new mug, but I can't use it or give it away. I am afraid that if I keep it for a seasonal decoration I will eventually forget the warning. Please help!!” Katy F.
A. Mmmm, one of the tougher Q&As that we’ve had. No simple answers here Katy. But maybe it is worth considering the martial art of Akido, where the defender uses the initiators movements to neutralise him. Or in this case, see your student’s ignorance not as a negative, but rather as an opportunity. Being a teacher you have unique circumstances to provide feedback, not only to that student, but your class as whole. Am assuming you teach elementary, or primary school, who are the most receptive to environmental education.
What a perfect segue into a discussion on Cradle to Cradle, or ‘where-stuff-comes-from-and-where-it-goes-to’. C2C is premised around the simple notion that for a sustainable planet we should see the world as offering only three types of materials, or what they term nutrients: 1. biodegradable (it will become soil again), 2. industrial (we can recycle it over and over and over into fresh high grade material) and 3. toxic (materials that make plants, animals, air, water and soil sick). Obviously we should only make products from the first two, and avoid that latter. This can lead to discussions on how we might know that things are toxic, or less than healthy, and thus onto labelling issues, such as the one found on your coffee cup. And maybe onto to one the hardest lessons for anyone to learn. That of actions and consequences. How every choice we make, effects the world around us, sometimes for the good, sometimes not.
Pose to your students the conundrum you face what to do with the cup now that you’ve enjoyed the Christmas treats. They might come up with startling answers (many deliciously impractical!) but nevertheless they will be thinking about issues of lifecycle. Which might spur heaps of other questions: Where does waste go? Why do we have to have rubbish (trash)? What eventually happens to the pet cat that died and was buried in the backyard? Does the school recycle its paper?
Or have your class write a group letter to the manufacturer and supplier asking why, in the first instance, they create products that can make people sick. The students could also ask the companies what suggestions they have for safe use and disposal of the said mug.
Encourage them that young people can have an impact to. Use the case of Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who was making waves at the tender age of just 9.
(In the event that you need a real world solution to your mug, it could be broken up and used to make a mosiac painting, or crushed up further and used as aggregate for drainage in the garden, or retained, as is, for a pencil or toothbrush holder.)
Might be prudent to elicit the approval the gift giver prior to any class study, so he/she doesn't feel a right goose.
(NB: we are not suggesting the cup pictured above contains any toxic ingredients. It is used for illustrative purposes only.)
The cancer causing agent, I suspect, might be the lead-based glaze. Lead oxide is used in ceramic glazing to lower the temperature at which it needs to be kilned. It is also used to make the surface lustrous and shiny.
I don't know if lead oxide causes cancer, but I do know that when it accumulates in your system, lead causes nervous system damage and messes with your enzymes by substituting out some metal ion which it is similar to, but different enough from to cause the enzyme to malfunction. (The exact ion which it substitutes out escapes my memory.) You can reverse lead poisoning to a great extent by consuming epsom salts; the epsom salt does another ion exchange that pulls lead out of your system in an inert, insoluble lead salt. Farmers in Britain are known to give epsom salts to animals which inadvertently get lead poisoned, or so I've heard.
Usually, lead oxide will not escape the glaze of a ceramic unless you expose it to something acidic. Don't drink anything that's acidic from your mug.
(If you use a lead testing pen and find that there is no lead in your mug's glaze, then I am mistaken, and you should ignore the above advice.)
If you have bright orange "Fiesta-ware", don't eat or drink off of it at all; keep it only as a decorative piece. Orange "fiesta-ware" (a Mexican pottery brand) gets that gorgeous orange from a uranium salt, which they dissolve into their glaze. If a bit of it chips off, and if you're unlucky enough to have a bit of it which contains some radioactive isotopes of uranium, your chances of getting cancer in your digestive tract will increase. In fact, if you have any bright orange glazed pottery that's imported, check it out with a geiger counter; if it shows a higher level of radiation than the normal background radiation of everything else, you shouldn't eat or drink off of it.
I believe that the ion you're talking about is Calcium, which is why there's a high concentration of lead in animal bones (not that I eat any animal products, but it's something to think about when knawing on that piece of an animal next meal). I don't know if it's cancerous, but lead in general's not good and bioaccumulates. Uranium's not so good either, but I'm guessing that's what's in the cup. I believe that keeping things in perspective is important. First, the isotope of Uranium is probably a relatively inert type, such as u-238 (as opposed to u-235 - the type that means business in weapons and power plants). It is likely that using the mug over your intire life would not decrease your lifespan in any appreciable of even noticeable way (not to say it's harmless), and many things are harmless. You'd probably get more carcinogens from eating peanut butter (especially organic - because of a type of fungus that often grows on the plants) than you'd ever get from using uranium cups and plates (though I may be wrong, anyone have an answer to this)? And by the way, i'm enjoying a pb&j sandwhich as of this instant.
The uranium that was used in the Fiesta-ware that my chemistry teacher used to demonstrate his geiger counter was significantly radioactive; his geiger counter's ticking was significantly more intense when pointed at the Fiesta-ware orange plates and cups. I don't think it was all normal U-238. Most uranium salts are mostly U-238, but have enough U-235 naturally present to be a health hazard.
the discussion sounds like a great classroom activity, but wait a year so you don't embarrass the heck out of the kid. you could send a note to the parents saying 'thank you for the christmas treats. i was surprised to find a sticker on the mug saying it wasn't safe for drinking use. it's inspired me to teach a session on sustainable design.'
I would shoot it with a gun