Does putting foods (especially acidic foods) in plastic containers cause a reaction which draws plastics into the food? Is this toxic?
I know tomato sauce stains many tupperwares, whose to say it’s only a one way street???
Make of it what you will.
Snopes: **"According to Dr. George Pauli, a leading Food and Drug Administration scientist, not very. He acknowledged that some plasticizers do migrate into foods, particularly those containing a lot of fat, oil, or sugars. But research has found no ill effects from consumption of plasticizers in FDA-approved plastic wraps or from freezing or re-using plastic water bottles. Even so, others remain unconvinced, and those on both sides of the issue recommend not letting plastic wrap touch food during microwaving. **
Hmm, I guess some people need to see proof before NOT eating something synthetic, whereas I need to see proof BEFORE I ingest something synthetic. Different strokes!
Industry speaks: Phthalates and Your Health
Europe acts: Europe to ban PVC toys
Out of context, but apt,
[quote]
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050321-7.html):
Consumer Reports just published an issue about this topic with a food list. It said they consider no amount of phthalates in food is safe. They had a list of food and beverages with the amounts of phthalates. A pat of butter had 50 phthalates, which was the lowest of the food items. I figured like most people I must eat a hundred million phthalates each year. But if I never ate any more phthalates I’d never be able to share a snack with anyone ever again. I’d probably piss off all my friends and family too.
“50 phthalates” is a meaningless figure. 50 what of phthalates? 50 milligrams? Micrograms? Molecules? Tons?
And if no amount of phthalates is safe, and all foods have phthalates, then they’re saying that the only safe course of action is to consume no food at all. That’s… not actually safe.
Also, remember, everyone, plastic isn’t a substance. It’s a very large category of substances, with a very wide variety of properties. Some plastics are food-safe. Some are not. Some are food-safe, but only at low temperatures.
I will say that PFAS contamination is one of the reasons we switched to glass storage containers (along with the reusability/recyclability issues). The lids are still plastic, but rarely come in contact with the food.
PFAS is some scary shit. There is, according to the latest research, no safe level. And the shit is everywhere, even in rain!
And yet, everyone isn’t all dead.
I ain’t dead, but [gestures at myself] this has certainly seen better days.
I’m looking at the CR article, but I can’t tell where Eric1 got that number. The unit is nanograms of phthalates per serving. They tested for 10 phthalates. The butter they tested (Land O’Lakes) had 581 ng, not 50. But it’s not the lowest; the lowest was Polar Seltzer, with 0 ng. The lowest nonzero number is Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce, at 22 ng. The highest, BTW, is Annie’s Organic Cheesy Ravioli, with 53,579 ng. Second is Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets, at 33,980 ng. The article mentions that fast foods are generally high in phthalates but they don’t know why; it might come from the vinyl gloves that workers use when they handle the food.
As for safe levels, the article says that there are regulatory thresholds for some phthalates in the US and Europe, and none of the food tested, even the ones with large amounts of phthalates, exceed that level. But it quotes two scientists who say that those thresholds are too high, with research showing health effects at levels well below the current regulatory thresholds.
markn_1, it’s true what you said about my misreading the phthalate amounts so I apologize about that. Thank you to all the posters as well for commiserating. If I were to eat a wider variety of foods that actually have nutritious value that would probably be the way to go.
The EPA has never released figures for any safe level of DHMO, either.
But you do hear about the occasional overdose death.
Also, measurable amounts of DHMO have been found in most malignant tumors.
(Oh no, are we doing this again?)
Well it is taking longer than we thought.
These new clean water acts are good. I don’t really know enough about chemistry to make a good thread but was thrilled just to shate the news. The interesting part to me is they can remove the chemicals from water. I assumed the chemicals would be in water forever but that was ignorance on my account.