10 October 2010 — A friend of ours who is a major cycling fan sent us this news story
about Alberto Contador, the Spanish cyclist who won the Tour de France this summer (and last year). Apparently he is suspected of having used the performance-enhancing drug called clenbuterol through intravenous supply. He says that it is through food cross-contamination that traces of the drug ended up in his bloodstream. However, along with traces of the drug, officials also found “traces of a plastic residue the same as the type used to manufacture blood bags”. So he is probably lying…
I don’t really care about the Tour de France or Alberto Cantador for that matter (no offence to his fans), but what blows me away is how the fact that plastic residue from blood bags ended up in his bloodstream does not seem to upset anyone. All the news reports I have read don’t seem to make a big deal out of that utterly outrageous fact. After doing a quick Google research, I discovered that blood bags are made of PVC and that the leaching element is a plasticizer called di-2-ethylexyl phthalates (source). Most people know that PVC is a dangerous plastic, among the worst because of all the plasticizers it contains… Why is it that the issue of plastic leaching from blood bags has never been seriously addressed? Using these bags seem to go against the healthy recovery of a sick patient or a healthy cyclist…
Chantal Plamondon, Co-Owner
LifeWithoutPlastic.com