The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-580) has advance resource conservation as a key element in the nation's response to the problems of solid waste disposal and materials and energy conservation. Resource conservation can have serious consequences to public health by removing from the market place disposable devices which have come to be part and parcel of modern preventive health practice. This is particularly true in the area of food protection where single service articles are often required or recommended for reasons of sanitation. The American Public Health Association affirms the preventive health value of single service articles for selected food service operations and cautions that curtailment of single service articles may introduce environmental hazards that are far more significant in terms of overall impact upon human health and safety than the possible reductions that resource conservation may achieve. The American Public Health Association urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Resource Conservation Committee to make careful assessment of the public health impact of resource conservation measures before these are applied to any single service articles that have come to serve a significant health protection function. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has defined source reduction as prevention of waste at its source, either by redesigning products or by otherwise changing societal patterns of consumption and waste generation.1 A basic approach to source reduction is the "substitution of reusable products for single use `disposable' products."2
Examples of items to which the principle of source reduction could apply are "beverage containers, food service items, and certain napkin and towel products."3
It is the opinion of the American Public Health Association that substitution of reusable food service items for disposable products in many cases will be a regressive step, contrary to established public health practice. The use of food service disposables has become a recognized measure of prevention against the transmission of diseases associated with use of the common drinking cup4 and other contaminated utensils.5 Public health regulations prevailing in most states require the use of disposables wherever sanitizing facilities are not available,6 a condition that is recognized to be normal in mobile food service7 and frequent in temporary food service.8 Food service at sports arenas, outdoor concerts, and other similar gatherings of large numbers of people cannot be satisfactorily managed without the use of disposables. Hospitals have effectively used single service,9 where the individual nature of the service is recognized to be hygienically safer, particularly for isolation patients.10 Environmental health officials are in general agreement that single-use products contribute much to sanitation levels in food service facilities and that these public health benefits are greater than possible disadvantages deriving from urban solid waste and litter.11 The National Environmental Health Association and International Association of Milk, Food and Environmental Sanitarians have passed resolutions reaffirming the preventive health value of single service products for food and beverage service and warning that restricting their use as an option in food service would be regressive and opposed to proven health practice.12
A direct connection between contaminated multiple use tableware and the outbreak of a food-borne disease has not been adequately documented. However, the presence of potential pathogens is sufficient to warrant concern that disease transmission could occur.13 One option to minimize this hazardous condition is to require the use of single service articles either as a temporary measure or as a permanent substitute for reusables. To remove this option of using single service tableware beneficial to sound public health practice for the sake of potential reductions in solid waste or energy savings might result in lower public health standards and consequently less protection for the consumer. The same can also be said of many other health care and packaging products which serve a preventive health function.
The APHA urges the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Resource Conservation Committee to make a thorough analysis of the public health and safety impact of any disposable devices before recommending their curtailment for the sake of resource conservation.
References
