# A PSA: plastic is not going to kill you **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 14, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578 "2009-11-14T19:03:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/1 "2009-11-14T19:03:01Z")
Unless you are a fetus or very young child, you probably [don’t need to worry](http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm) about BPA. Your old Nalgene water bottle - or for that matter, the extremely wide variety of canned, jarred, and otherwise-packaged foods you may consume - is not going to cause cancer. Freezing things in plastic containers is not going to cause dioxins to leech into your food. This is because [there are no dioxins in plastic](http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/halden_dioxins2.html). Also, lowering the temperature by and large slows down chemical reactions, as opposed to speeding them up, so if you want to irrationally worry about non-existent things creeping from your plastic containers into your food, worry about it happening when things are heating up. But you shouldn’t worry about that, because if a container or plastic wrap says it’s microwave safe, [it’s pretty much safe](http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Cooking_Safely_in_the_Microwave/index.asp). Some plastic products that aren’t microwave safe [may or may not](http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp) leech harmful chemicals if they’re in direct contact with your food while cooking in a microwave. The research is still unclear as to A) what happens and B) what the long-term effects to a human are. So there’s really no reason to worry about heating up that leftover chili. If you do, however, decide to ignore things like ‘scientific research’ and instead pay attention to the alarmist headline written by a journalism school dropout on the cover of your glossy fashion magazine, please _shut the fuck up_ about it. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/2 "2009-11-14T20:33:01Z")
I bet it causes autism, just like vaccines do! I bet every kid with autism used plastic at some point! Yet here you are, believing these links you found on the internet. How much is big plastic paying them off, I wonder. By the way, I was being sarcastic. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/3 "2009-11-14T21:00:42Z")
BPA might not kill you, but it could make some guys [wish they were dead.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111017411.html) Cancer? No one cares. ED? Now that’s something to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/4 "2009-11-14T22:39:48Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > BPA might not kill you, but it could make some guys [wish they were dead.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111017411.html) > > Cancer? No one cares. ED? Now that’s something to worry about. Yes, but A) one study is not conclusive evidence of anything and B) that study is only remotely relevant to people who work in factories where they are, according to your own cite, exposed to 50 times the average exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/5 "2009-11-15T00:03:00Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > So there’s really no reason to worry about heating up that leftover chili. If you do, however, decide to ignore things like ‘scientific research’ and instead pay attention to the alarmist headline written by a journalism school dropout on the cover of your glossy fashion magazine, please _shut the fuck up_ about it. Could you please come tell my co workers this? Please? Oh, wait, there’s a girl we work with who _lived in Europe_ who thinks plastic is bad. And vaccines were made to make drug companies money after their little man-made experiment called H1N1 leaked out of the lab. Her sister in law is from Germany so she knows. And now since all our patients have been vaccinated for H1N1 we are all going to catch it! And they are going to die! And margarine is one molecule away from plastic. And Tupperware has “the worst plastic” and thats why it isn’t sold in stores because if Walmart or Sears sold it they would be sued! I’m a nurse, by the way. These co-workers are all nurses too. These panic mongers are the people taking care of the mentally ill, the paranoid schizophrenics, the demented patients in a very large geographic area. They tell the families their own paranoid internet lies. Somedays I’m not sure who should carry keys and who should take their meds like a good girl. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/6 "2009-11-15T00:14:37Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > Oh, wait, there’s a girl we work with who _lived in Europe_ who thinks plastic is bad. And vaccines were made to make drug companies money after their little man-made experiment called H1N1 leaked out of the lab. Her sister in law is from Germany so she knows. I missed the edit window, but Eurodopers did you know that Geography alone makes you win any argument? I tried to point out that “her sister in law lives in Germany and therefore knows” is a logical fallacy. No one understood a) what a logical fallacy was, b) why “Appeal to Authority” is bad, especially if the criteria for being an expert is as simple as where you live and c) who was I calling a penis? (fallacy != penis but good on you for having a vocabulary!) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/7 "2009-11-15T05:01:06Z")
Last week in PoliSci class a girl pointed out that “Basque don’t consider themselves Spanish;” I countered that many thousand Basque consider themselves either Spanish or French, she countered with “I’m from Spain, I know!!!” and I answered “well, I happen to be Basque.” In the ensuing silence the professor (also from Spain although we’re in Scotland) said “very interesting, anybody else who’d like to comment on national identity?” It’s a bloody stupid argument, but I love being able to beat up Teh Stupid with their own baseball bat. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/8 "2009-11-15T06:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m a nurse, by the way. These co-workers are all nurses too. These panic mongers are the people taking care of the mentally ill, the paranoid schizophrenics, the demented patients in a very large geographic area. They tell the families their own paranoid internet lies. > > Somedays I’m not sure who should carry keys and who should take their meds like a good girl. If anyone wants me, I’ll be in a closet, whimpering and crying in fear. This is damned scary. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/9 "2009-11-15T11:12:35Z")
I’m getting a kick out of this since a co-worker (chemist) has a 5-gallon carboy filled with Bis-A. I work near him nearly every day. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/10 "2009-11-15T11:39:26Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > I’m getting a kick out of this since a co-worker (chemist) has a 5-gallon carboy filled with Bis-A. I work near him nearly every day. heh, somewhere my exhusband has a picture of me sitting on the catwalk above the rod pool at Ginnea doing paperwork … the angle is just right so you can see the pretty blue radiation glow at the bottom …😃 back when i was a rad whore there was a significant part of the people who upon hearing i worked in nuke plants backed away like _i_ was radioactive, or were horrified and asked if i wanted mutant kids \ ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/11 "2009-11-15T13:57:32Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > heh, somewhere my exhusband has a picture of me sitting on the catwalk above the rod pool at Ginnea doing paperwork … the angle is just right so you can see the pretty blue radiation glow at the bottom …😃 > > back when i was a rad whore there was a significant part of the people who upon hearing i worked in nuke plants backed away like _i_ was radioactive, or were horrified and asked if i wanted mutant kids \ that must be a great photo! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/12 "2009-11-15T14:26:14Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > If anyone wants me, I’ll be in a closet, whimpering and crying in fear. This is damned scary. Scary and true. I spend a lot of time on the Dope just reading to reassure myself not everyone thinks like my co workers. The flack I got from my co workers for getting my son (age 5, some underlying medical conditions) and myself vaccinated is unbelievable. I just walk out of the nursing station now when the topic turns to this, since I am sick of arguing. The most rampant anti-vaxers I know are nurses. Some are booking off from work this weekend because our patients were vaccinated. (Not live virus in the injections) Oh well, overtime for me. Good for me, bad for the tax payers. (I live in Canada…) As for the plastic, I have several co workers who bring food to work in glass jars. Fine, but I don’t want to hear about it. I also don’t want to hear how I am killing my child because I send his fruit in a plastic snack cup. (I’d rather not use a new ziplock baggie every single day and put more waste in the landfill, nor spend something like 300% mark up for single serving fruit cups.) I am tired of email chain letters passing for informed research opinions, and logical fallicies being used as “proof”. I just work here, and talk about the grocery store flyers. Any other topic is problematic. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/13 "2009-11-15T14:42:44Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > I’m getting a kick out of this since a co-worker (chemist) has a 5-gallon carboy filled with Bis-A. I work near him nearly every day. people get trained to work with hazardous materials of all sorts. safely doing so doesn’t make the materials nonhazardous in other situations. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/14 "2009-11-15T15:39:03Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I bet it causes autism, just like vaccines do! I bet every kid with autism used plastic at some point! Yet here you are, believing these links you found on the internet. How much is big plastic paying them off, I wonder. > By the way, I was being sarcastic. Ut’s oxygen, I tell you! It’s an irrefutable fact that every person – every single person, 100% – of those who have had cancer have at one time or another inhaled oxygen. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/15 "2009-11-15T15:59:06Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Ut’s oxygen, I tell you! It’s an irrefutable fact that every person – every single person, 100% – of those who have had cancer have at one time or another inhaled oxygen. Jesus, we should really start taking steps to ban that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/16 "2009-11-15T16:07:35Z")
Don’t get me started about dihydrogen monoxide. That stuff will kill you in large enough amounts. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/17 "2009-11-15T16:20:37Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Don’t get me started about dihydrogen monoxide. That stuff will kill you in large enough amounts. Or smaller amounts if you inhale it. Its very very very dangerous to inhale it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/18 "2009-11-15T18:24:43Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > \ > So there’s really no reason to worry about heating up that leftover chili. If you do, however, decide to ignore things like ‘scientific research’ and instead pay attention to the alarmist headline written by a journalism school dropout on the cover of your glossy fashion magazine, please _shut the fuck up_ about it. This is one of my current peeves - somewhere along the line we got the idea that all opinions are equal, and 5,000 scientists on one side with one opinion has equal weight to five nutcases on the other side with the opposing opinion (see: Anthropogenic Global Warming). No. No, it doesn’t. You want to have an open mind, sure, but not so open your brains fall out. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/19 "2009-11-15T18:59:42Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > This is one of my current peeves - somewhere along the line we got the idea that all opinions are equal, and 5,000 scientists on one side with one opinion has equal weight to five nutcases on the other side with the opposing opinion (see: Anthropogenic Global Warming). No. No, it doesn’t. You want to have an open mind, sure, but not so open your brains fall out. But–but-- but…Margaret’s sister-in-law is from Germany! Where do the 5000 scientists live? ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578/20 "2009-11-15T19:01:57Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > If anyone wants me, I’ll be in a closet, whimpering and crying in fear. This is damned scary. You think THAT’S scary? Look up Therapudic Touch – basically the idea that you can wave your hands over people and heal them/detect illnesses with your aura. It’s being taught in mainstream nursing schools now. My wife, an RN, has encountered it in several facilities among folks who ought to know better. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-psa-plastic-is-not-going-to-kill-you/517578.md?page=2)