FIRING LINE: Black plastics and CKD

FIRING LINE: Black plastics and CKD

By Robert B. Roque Jr. | June 30, 2026

As health tips grow ever more visible in my social media feeds, I’m certain many of my age experience the same shock and insecurity about chronic kidney disease and food safety risks we never thought twice about. The deeper you search into these common health problems, Google would likely lead you to the worst diagnosis — Cancer. Anyway, this past week, my attention focused on black plastics.

Those dark takeout containers and kitchen utensils we use without a second thought — and routinely reheat food in — turn out to be quietly dangerous. Studies have found that black plastic is largely made from recycled electronic waste, such as old TVs, computers, and office equipment.

The toxic chemicals engineered into those electronics to prevent fires do not disappear in recycling — they end up in your takeout tray. Heat pulls them straight into your food, and oily or acidic dishes like adobo or sisig make it worse.

Even without a microwave involved, simply scraping a fork against black plastic releases microscopic fragments that damage the gut. The safe swap is straightforward: glass, ceramic, or stainless steel. The science is no longer ambiguous, and neither should our habits be.

But unsafe everyday practices like this feed into a much larger national health emergency — one that friends and relatives of mine have not been spared from. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is essentially what happens when the kidneys slowly lose their ability to filter the body’s waste — often silently, with no symptoms until the damage is severe. It is now among the top 10 leading causes of death in the Philippines.

The Department of Health (DOH) estimates 13 million Filipinos are affected. Dialysis patients jumped 22% in a single year. Diabetes and high blood pressure — conditions increasingly common among Filipinos — are its biggest triggers.

This is why a recent health forum, where patient groups raised the alarm on what medicine calls Cardiorenal Metabolic disease — the dangerous convergence of heart, kidney, and metabolic conditions — deserves serious legislative attention.

It calls to mind what my favorite Health secretary, Dr. Juan M. Flavier, once advocated for: prevention over cure. In the same token, these groups cite measures set before Congress to pass practical and long overdue remedies like a tax on sugary drinks to discourage one of the biggest dietary drivers of diabetes.

There are also pending measures on front-of-pack nutrition labels that would allow ordinary Filipinos to make informed choices in the grocery aisle without needing a medical degree. There’s a push to subsidize organic and healthier food options, which would make better eating accessible beyond the privileged few.

Also, there must be mandated coverage for the Urine Albumin-to-Creatinine Ratio (UACR) test that detects early kidney damage through the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). This would allow early detection before the disease becomes irreversible.

The government must go beyond funding dialysis. Prevention, not just treatment, is what will bend this curve. As Flavier once said: Keep people healthy before they get sick.”

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