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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

301–310 of 886 posts

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#301
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will solve itself, nature adapts fast, if you have enough dice throws- and plastic is everywhere. A million evolutionary dices roll everywhere out there- and one day all the plastics get a mold and that building block of civilization just drips away.

> It will solve itself, nature adapts fast Indeed. The first step is for the planet to get rid of the pesky pollutants, perhaps by way of launching several “natural disasters” such as mighty strong winds, excessive floods, and particularly pesky deathly organisms. Then it can deal with plastic at its leisure. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#302

After I learned about the harmful effects of Teflon, I became much more cautious about consumption. It's nearly impossible to avoid the toxins when eating out because wax has been replaced with synthetics that leach into food from packaging. Just use metal wood or glass. One thing I'm not aware of is if Pyrex or the other tempered glasses are safe or if they also contain plastic. That would be good to learn.

Tempered glass does not contain plastic. No glass contains plastic. The formula to make glass has been known for centuries. Tempering is a thermal process, it doesn’t change the chemistry of the product. Old school pyrex involved the addition of Boron —- no hydrocarbons in the mix.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#303
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in developed countries like the US a lot of people burn fossil fuels for indoor cooking, even when they could choose a better alternative.

What better option? resistance electric is clearly worse in other ways. I've heard induction is good but it is an expensive luxury option and not common even in that niche. i've heard it is reasonable priced in other countries but not the us.

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#304
post #83
post #3

https://archive.ph/2024.10.30-145843/https://www.theatlantic...

Or a gift link: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/10/black-pla... (@dang, please consider using it as the main link.)

Not working for me. It loads, but still with paywall.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

In my country we have some ridiculous newspapers that will publish any story with "may cause cancer" in the headline. So for a lot of people these stories are a boy-who-cried-wolf situation. Precautionary principle? I'm sorry to say stainless steel may leech heavy metals into food during cooking [1] And also silicone may leech potentially harmful chemicals into food [2] Nonstick coatings? Teflon flu "could be a real…

I can relate to your distrust of the various click-baity headlines of papers, but Teflon flu is a real thing. It's easily avoided by not over-heating pans - keep them under 260°C and don't heat them when empty as that can result in hot spots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#307
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

Maybe a stupid question, but how can I tell the difference between plastic and silicone? We use a black spatula that's flexible (shapes a bit to the curvature of what you're wiping, super convenient) and doesn't scratch the pan while not being porous like wood (where I always wonder how many bacteria live in these crevasses). It seems perfect and is being sold specifically for cooking so I assumed this plastic, if th…

I read somewhere that if you bend/squeeze silicone, it shouldn't turn white. If it does, it's plastic. You may need to really bend/squeeze it.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wood and plastic are not the only two options in your life, this is a silly framing.

I have a composite (???) cutting board, the surface kinda feels like it's papery / fibrous something when it's wet and some of the bits flake off. But it's dishwasher safe.

Instead of wood _or_ plastic, you have wood _and_ plastic in one board! (Or rather, paper mixed with some sort of formaldehyde resin)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#309
post #300

After I learned about the harmful effects of Teflon, I became much more cautious about consumption. It's nearly impossible to avoid the toxins when eating out because wax has been replaced with synthetics that leach into food from packaging. Just use metal wood or glass. One thing I'm not aware of is if Pyrex or the other tempered glasses are safe or if they also contain plastic. That would be good to learn.

From what I know, Teflon is neutral as long as you don't overheat it and breathe in the gas. Can you point some sources stating otherwise?

Regardless of the health concerns that arise from using Teflon, the industrial process used to produce it has caused significant issues that were covered in the documentary "The Devil We Know"[0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_We_Know

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#310

After I learned about the harmful effects of Teflon, I became much more cautious about consumption. It's nearly impossible to avoid the toxins when eating out because wax has been replaced with synthetics that leach into food from packaging. Just use metal wood or glass. One thing I'm not aware of is if Pyrex or the other tempered glasses are safe or if they also contain plastic. That would be good to learn.

Modern Pyrex is ordinary glass, mostly, and sometimes strengthened glass. Old Pyrex was borosilicate glass.

Pyrex the brand switched to soda lime glass in North America, but you can still find borosilicate glass kitchenware from different vendors.
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