I had a grilled cheese sandwich from the local deli, but unfortunately had already ingested it by the time I noticed the styrofoam container (polystyrene 6) had melted at the spots where the hot sandwich touched the container. It was pretty badly warped and melted in those spots and some of whatever it melted into must have gotten onto my sandwich. I notice this happens a lot with hot oily foods + styrofoam.
Should I be concerned about this? What kinds of bad chemicals did I eat with my sandwich?
Styrofoam is pretty damn inert. As long as you didn’t eat enough to cause a physical obstruction, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Here’s the styrofoam MSDS info:
Dow Chemical would appreciate that it be told that “Styrofoam” is a brand name of Blue (yes, they trademarked “Blue” in reference to their product) extruded polystyrene building materials, and that there is no such thing as a Styrofoam cup or food container. Those items are made of expanded polystyrene.
I wouldn’t want to be around polystyrene if it was on fire, but the sandwich was probably more harmful to your health than the tiny bit of plastic that you might have eaten.