Ok. My friend makes a batch of grilled cheese sandwiches - only he puts them in the microwave for too long, and the styrofoam plate bonds slightly to the bread. Since he’ll eat anything, he just scraped it off the bread and ate them - and then later offered the last sandwich to me. I didn’t figure out the styrofoam had bonded to the bread until I looked at the plate. I figure it was no big deal… but then I started to get a stomach ache.
So I was wondering, does eating (miniscule) amounts of styrofoam do something terrible to the digestive system? Does it release some sort of toxin when it’s melted by acid?
Should I try to puke, or anything? Or is it no big deal?
The reason that milk is not a great ulcer remedy is because it stimulates further acid production. The pH of milk is only trivially acidic and pales in comparison to the much lower pH of gastric acid.
Styrofoam is a trademark owned by Dow Chemical for a make of polystyrene foam. It is used mostly to create insulation. It is not used to make cups or plates. From the Dow Web site:
styrofoam (polystyrene) is nontoxic by ingestion as it goes straight through the intestinal track without being absorbed. It’s dust is irritating to lungs (what dust isn’t) and could well cause problems there. the only problem with styroam is that it can contain residual levels of the chemical used to make it - styrene. Also overheating polystyrene (180 C +) will cause it to break down releasing styrene. Styrene is not good for you long term, though I used to work all day with it working on fibreglass boats. So if me breathing it all day for two years did me no obvious damage, then the very small amounts in the cups are unlikely to be a problem. The jury is still out whether it is carcinogenic, but if it is, it is a very weak carcinogen
