I avoid Diollarama as much as possible. Sounds iffy, at best. 
It’s also a great place to stock up on dimonds and 25 karat gould on the cheap.
I’m on the fence. I hate paper straws. They soften up in your drink and it is harder to sip beverages. Yet, I want to avoid plastic exposure as much as possible. It turns out microplastics are very bad for our health. Hell, microplastics are the 2020’s version of trans-fats.
Unfortunately it’s not even that simple with paper straws because many paper straws have a thin plastic coating on the inside
Yes this is unrelated to the OP but coincidentally enough I just started my annual “Maintenance of Recertification Assessment” (a home open book timed test from the American Board of Pediatrics; we get a group of questions to answer once each quarter) and the first of the featured articles is about this subject! So while I don’t dispute the decision your docs make for you, I can state with absolute certainty what the “right answer” will be when the questions come up over the year! 
Apparently dear leader will be signing an executive order bringing back plastic straws next week.
Can’t wait for Jesse Watters to change his tune and now claim straws are very masculine. As long as they are plastic.
We should tackle plastic straw pollution after we solve the plague of discarded Fireball whisky mini-bottles.
Yes. Skimming through this thread the main concern seems to be environmental, which is valid, of course. But the biggest reason to turn away from single-use plastic is the micro plastic it ends up being.
Micro plastics are present in people’s brains, among other organs. They have been linked to dementia, heart attacks, strokes, and more.
At some random chain restaurant the paper straws came in flavours. If that doesn’t appeal to the 6 to 8 year old demographic, what will? (Spoiler: it did)
Now when I take my kids to similar restaurants, they ask for the flavoured straws. Which, despite being the same chain, are not available. I need to drive about 200km to that original restaurant and ask them where they get their straws.
As someone who drinks both pop with straws and coffee with lids in his car, I can tell you that straws are a lot more effective at preventing spillage than coffee cup style lids.
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2025-02735
Section 1. Policy. An irrational campaign against plastic straws has resulted in major cities, States, and businesses banning the use or automatic inclusion of plastic straws with beverages. Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws. Additionally, paper straws sometimes come individually wrapped in plastic, undermining the environmental argument for their use.
It is therefore the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws.
Federal agencies were instructed to stop purchasing paper straws, and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy (Mr. Vince Haley, formerly the President’s speechwriter) has been instructed to issue a “National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws” by the end of March.
~Max
I am simply gobsmacked by it all.
It’s not all bad news. The actual U.S. government directive seems to be more anti-paper straws than pro-plastic. I don’t think reusable metal straws you use are even on the radar. My roommates have glass and metal straws, but I don’t use straws at all, personally. I think the big issue is the single use nature of the product, more so than the material used.
~Max
You are absolutely correct.
This has just come up for me - I had hives, got a blood test that was negative last year, but got hives and other symptoms last week when again taking a penicillin. Doctor’s calling it, no more for me.
That’s interesting; my mother believes she has a penicillin allergy based on a reaction to taking it years ago. No idea if this was just hypersensitivity or a real allergic reaction.
I had a probably allergic reaction to penicillin as a kid. I recently saw an allergist for sometime unrelated, and she said, "you probably aren’t still allergic, would you like me to test? So i said, “yes”, and after an afternoon of various scratches and jabs, she gave me a tablet of amoxicillin and told me to wait 90 minutes, then took my vitals and decided i am not allergic.
I’ve since removed that note from most of my medical records. And even been prescribed amoxicillin for an ear infection (although the nurse said it might be clearing up, and suggested i wait a day, and that worked, so i didn’t take the meds.)
I gotta say, i hate paper straws, and cleaning straws is way more tricky than it’s worth, especially since mostly when i use a straw it’s a very narrow straw with hot milky coffee. (Narrow to cool out enough that i can drink it.) But this seems really dumb.
Mr Trump has exceeded my expectations with the paper straw ban. Thank you, Donald. You may now retire.
It’s 2025’s version of flag burning.