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Are there places where eating plastics is considered a normal food or food additive?
Plastic pens Plastic straws Plastic Lilly sticks Plastic tie-wraps Basically anything that someone might chew on! Although, licorice roots are okay to chew on... I guess. :-)
Licorice can be toxic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8962506/
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How many cycles do we have to go through of "oh, recklessly dumping this substance into the ecosystem probably doesn't have any ill effects, and you should prove it does before being such a negative nelly"? Just once, I'd like to sacrifice consumerism at the altar of my and my family's internal organs, versus the other way around. We're a few decades late to finally be putting full product lifecycle accountability in…
> How many cycles do we have to go through of "oh, recklessly dumping this substance into the ecosystem probably doesn't have any ill effects, and you should prove it does before being such a negative nelly"? Because to be blunt, and even to adopt your inflammatory frame, "recklessly dumping substances into the ecosystem" has been Generally Accepted As Safe for literally thousands of years. For everything particular…
For hundreds of thousands, substances that have negative effects (eg human corpses) were disposed of far from populations, precisely because humans learned that consequences quickly. Humans have been cognizant of causation, when they could detect it, for longer than thousands of years. Yes the black plague took awhile to figure out. As we saw with cigarettes, society is always trending to keeping the status quo. Often, to society's own detriment over the short term, along the span of human existence.
> We have 8 billion of us out there, demanding zero impact just isn't going to happen.
That's not relevant.
It's time to come up with what I'd call a Plastic Chain Index. For any given edible item, a very low plastic chain index implies that it would only have plastic inadvertently absorbed from the environment, whereas a high one would be e.g. those super hot French fries rolling in plastic. If you're optimistic, this will usher in easy measurement, widespread awareness and consumer enlightenment. But realistically, we wi…
How much should we worry about the disposable cups they put coffee in? My understanding is we’re putting a hot liquid in a cup lined with plastic.
Note that they seem to only appear in processed food. That's kind of OK of you cook yourself apparently.
Perdue Ground Chicken Breast (foam tray with plastic wrap) 9,985
Trader Joe’s Ground Pork 80% Lean 20% Fat (plastic wrap) 5,503
Stop & Shop Ground Beef 80% Lean 20% Fat (paperboard with plastic wrap) 2,729
And dairy:
Tuscan Dairy Farms Whole Milk (plastic) 10,932
Land O’Lakes Butter Salted (paper wrap/cardboard) 581
These numbers are much lower than some of the others, but they are not only in processed food.
It's time to come up with what I'd call a Plastic Chain Index. For any given edible item, a very low plastic chain index implies that it would only have plastic inadvertently absorbed from the environment, whereas a high one would be e.g. those super hot French fries rolling in plastic. If you're optimistic, this will usher in easy measurement, widespread awareness and consumer enlightenment. But realistically, we wi…
indeed, the Supreme Court's agreed to hear a case next year which they may use to dismantle the entire legal basis for all the US govmt's regulatory agencies. arguments in that case begin on Jan 17th
How much should we worry about the disposable cups they put coffee in? My understanding is we’re putting a hot liquid in a cup lined with plastic.
All canned drinks are lined with plastics. I think all canned things, period, at this point.
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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?
nope, tons of evidence of harm
Note that they seem to only appear in processed food. That's kind of OK of you cook yourself apparently.
CR only tested processed food so that's not really a conclusion you can make.
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/the...