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Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

reuters.com

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Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#21

Post by ceejayoz »

arsome wrote: post #19
ceejayoz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230103-how-plastic-is-g... > Plastic particles can also contaminate food crops directly. A 2020 study found microplastics and nanoplastics in fruit and vegetables sold by supermarkets and in produce sold by local sellers in Catania in Sicily, Italy. Apples were the most contaminated fruit, and carrots had the highest levels of microplastics among the sampled vegetables. > Accordin…

Isn't there also limited to no evidence of harms from these in humans?

I mean, what would you even use as the control group? They're in every single human at this point.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#22

Post by arsome »

ceejayoz wrote: post #21
arsome wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there also limited to no evidence of harms from these in humans?

I mean, what would you even use as the control group? They're in every single human at this point.

I'll happily sign up to be mega-dosed with them for a trial, but they've tried that in mice and found pretty much no issues.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#23

Post by agilob »

jdietrich wrote: post #12

>Consumer Reports said none of the phthalate levels it found exceeded limits set by U.S. and European regulators. I'm totally fine with this. Maybe the FDA is toothless, I don't know, but EFSA do not kid around.

This is the canary of plastic pollution similar to we knew about global warming in '70s. We know it's only going to get worse, but we're happy to ignore it until it gets really bad.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#25

Post by boringuser2 »

jdietrich wrote: post #12

>Consumer Reports said none of the phthalate levels it found exceeded limits set by U.S. and European regulators. I'm totally fine with this. Maybe the FDA is toothless, I don't know, but EFSA do not kid around.

The FDA isn't "toothless"...

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#27

Post by zug_zug »

jdietrich wrote: post #12

>Consumer Reports said none of the phthalate levels it found exceeded limits set by U.S. and European regulators. I'm totally fine with this. Maybe the FDA is toothless, I don't know, but EFSA do not kid around.

Two points -

1. That's the current tolerable levels of xenoestrogen chemicals per agencies. However it's not clear whether there's a safe level of plastic ever established by these agencies.

2. These "Safe levels" are adjusted all the time. There no reason to presume that in the future the current safe levels won't be reduced.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#28

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

ledgerdev wrote: post #9
looofooo wrote: post #2

What is the problem with these "plastics"?

I would strongly encourage you look into the research of Dr Shawna Swan. She's done several studies since the 1990's that have found and then later confirmed very alarming effects on testosterone and unborn children. And it's not just plastics causing this, it's pesticides and parabens too.

[flagged]

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#29

Post by alistairSH »

javier_e06 wrote: post #10

Notwithstanding the literature that says Phthalates are also breathed and absorbed through skin, that ship has sailed for this and the few generations ahead of us.

"That ship has sailed" is a bit of a cop out, no? Just because something already happened doesn't mean we shouldn't/can't change our ways going forward. The current levels of plastics might not be obviously harmful, but that doesn't mean we won't discover harm in the future. Or that we should just say "fuck it" and resign ourselves to eating plastics forever.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#30

Post by ceejayoz »

boringuser2 wrote: post #25
jdietrich wrote: post #12

>Consumer Reports said none of the phthalate levels it found exceeded limits set by U.S. and European regulators. I'm totally fine with this. Maybe the FDA is toothless, I don't know, but EFSA do not kid around.

The FDA isn't "toothless"...

One of the key differences here is the FDA permits food additives and adulterants to be self-affirmed as "Generally Recognized As Safe", which largely means "well, no one says it isn't, yet".

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-10-246

> Because GRAS notification is voluntary and companies are not required to identify nanomaterials in their GRAS substances, FDA has no way of knowing the full extent to which engineered nanomaterials have entered the U.S. food supply as part of GRAS substances. In contrast to FDA's approach, all food ingredients that incorporate engineered nanomaterials must be submitted to regulators in Canada and the European Union before they can be marketed.

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