What is the difference in using Food Grade Plastic in Acupressure mats and is it worth spending the extra money to have the spikes in the your acupressure mat made from food grade plastic?
All plastics are made from hydrocarbons and derived from petroleum or natural gas so they are all more or less the same right? Wrong there is huge difference between the processes used to create different plastics and the levels of impurities contained in the plastic.
Additionally many food grade plastic need to be more resistant to acidic foods otherwise that vinaigrette salad dressing would leech potentially harmful chemicals from the plastic into the food.
Food grade plastic also unlike other plastics cannot contain dyes or plastic materials considered harmful to humans
Food grade plastics are highly regulated in the EU, USA and Australia and have to reach high standards to be considered safe to contain food.
Modern research has repeatedly demonstrated just how readily we can absorb chemicals and other substances through our skin. In fact topical application is now regularly used as a method of administering certain types of drugs which respond better to this delivery method.
An acupressure mat contains between 4,000 and 6534 individual plastic spikes that spend anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour in direct contact with the skin. This process is often repeatedly daily for most users to assist sleeping, relaxation or back pain.
This is a lot of time for the skin to spend in contact with an unknown cheaply produced plastic. Poorly manufactured plastics could leech small amounts of chemicals onto and potentially into the skin from day one.
This process can be worsened by sweating. Sweating opens the pores and sweat contain small amounts of both urea and ammonia amongst other chemicals.
Sweat also mixes with sebum on the skins surface to form the acid mantle which helps protect the skins surface. This acid mantle which comes in direct contact with the plastic spikes has a PH of between 4 and 5.5. It is best in these circumstances if the plastic used in the mat is resistant to contact with acidic environments
Additionally many plastics degrade over time and with sun exposure making them more likely to leech chemicals.
A good acupressure mat should last you a life time making it one of the most economical home treatments available. Given this and the potential risks of long term contact with low grade plastic it may be worth spending a little more on your acupressure mat.
The White Lotus Acupressure Mat guarantees that only food made plastic is used in the production of the plastic spikes. To learn more follow this link.