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Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

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Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#201

Post by rsync »

teruakohatu wrote: post #197
rsync wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent some time thinking about this and it's a difficult problem for two reasons: First, while we use metal blades on our ranch it's not easy - you need to educate workers on the extra safety issues involved with the blade and you need to be very careful about fire safety due to sparking. There are only a few months where we use the trimmers at all due to fire risk.[1] Second, operators of trimmers don't like th…

What is your reason for using them over plastic? Just pollution or do you have a lot of woody shrubs? Google confirms they are available here in New Zealand but I have only ever seen them in American YouTube videos. Over here, you can’t just dictate tools. Health & Safety regulations and agencies use highly punitive measures to ensure employers do everything possible to avoid employee injury. Even if you hurt yoursel…

Yes - The choice is dictated solely by the pollution.

I Can’t comment on the laws in New Zealand, but I live in California, which is, relatively, Progressive with worker protections.

The dangers associated with the Trimmer blades are a subset of the dangers associated with the chainsaws we (safely) use.

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#202

Post by solardev »

rsync wrote: post #74

I am, in a different life, a consumer of compost and I have started looking very carefully at the compost products for sale in the bay area. On the urban consumer side of things I see compost collection bins which cannot possibly be decontaminated of all manner of plastic pieces which will, inevitably, be ground up into the compost product. On the rural side of things I see miles of plastic baling twine and weedeater…

I know that some wastewater treatment plants will sell biosolid sludge (the filtered and partially treated solid output of the treatment process). Do you know what, if anything, that does to the plastics?

I think it's mostly mechanical settling and then sitting in piles on the ground. Not sure if that UV exposure from the sun is enough to meaningfully degrade the plastic into something else.

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#203

Post by knowaveragejoe »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #76

Did they test Wheat. I'm convinced something is up with the Wheat here. I've not seen Europeans gain anywhere near as much weight from eating bread as people do here. From my experience visiting Paris, croissants, butter and pastries pretty common on the menu. But still people are still pretty skinny in comparison. And like Pasta in Italy is a staple. Yet still, lower BMI there.

It probably has as much to do with their portion sizes as it does the actual wheat. Not to mention wildly different activity levels(people actually walk places far more often in the EU than they do in the US)

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#204

Post by sss111 »

SerCe wrote: post #45

I wish similar testing were available in Australia, I'd pay for a subscription to have access to high-quality independent testing of the common foods that are available in the shops. I wonder if enough people care for this to be a viable business model.

+1 for US & India.

I put in a quote request with the lab OP used, the economics might work out but we'd run into the problem of people sharing the insights/outliers on social media?

Also side note, this test seems exorbitantly expensive in India. $1100 for 1 kit! https://www.amazon.in/Phthalates-Test-Bus-Days-Schneider/dp/...

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#205

Post by sizzle »

osanseviero wrote: post #173
sizzle wrote: post #154

This research by these non academic background folks is simply astounding and exceptional. How did they get the funding to run $500k of independent lab testing? Can we donate to the cause? This stuff is on my mind all the time eating out or from plastic-impregnated cardboard food packaging lining, etc. I’m worried about reproductive impact on future generations and overall personal health, etc.

Nat Friedman leads the project. He was GitHub's CEO, among many other things. He funds many interesting ambitious projects, such as the Vesuvius Challenge ( https://scrollprize.org/ )

Really cool thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#206

Post by lazide »

wahern wrote: post #194
MVissers wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And the last decades we’ve had a new unknown cause of colon cancer increase in young adults. My money is on plastics, but will be hard to prove.

There's growing evidence, especially in the past few years with better studies, that suggests HPV is a significant driver, if not the most significant driver, of the increase in colorectal cancer among younger adults. I suspect it's been a disfavored explanation because of certain implications--implications which should be irrelevant and not even necessarily true, but I digress. The HPV vaccine should in theory be pr…

Very interesting!

Perhaps inappropriate to ask, but are you thinking the implication is anal sex, or the ‘eating ass’ cultural element, or something else?

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#207

Post by Tagbert »

PittleyDunkin wrote: post #200
Tagbert wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not “gum”. They are mainly starch. They have no nutritional benefit but a do convert a big load of sugars in your blood.

> They have no nutritional benefit but a do convert a big load of sugars in your blood. That is, like, the definition of nutritional benefit.

It is a very low grade nutrition that produces a lot of unhealthy results. Not really a benefit.

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#208

Post by hi_hello »

metadat wrote: post #70
conorh wrote: post #67

My wife is a doctor dealing with (part of) the endocrine system and for years she has had us avoiding heating anything up in a plastic container and avoiding food/liquids+plastic where we can. She believes that these endocrine disruptors are very likely much worse for us than we currently realize, and that the research is eventually going to show that.

Why does she believe this? What data is it based on? (I also avoid these things but only because I feel paranoid about it.)

Specifically on heating plastics:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c01942

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#209

Post by tomcam »

rsync wrote: post #135
jrmg wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m usually less worried about microplastics than many (human lifespan is at the longest it’s ever been, and people are healthy at older ages than ever - things can’t be that bad overall), but weed eater string is a pet peeve of mine. We’re just spewing nylon microplastics everywhere, and I can’t understand how it’s not at all controversial!

I've spent some time thinking about this and it's a difficult problem for two reasons: First, while we use metal blades on our ranch it's not easy - you need to educate workers on the extra safety issues involved with the blade and you need to be very careful about fire safety due to sparking. There are only a few months where we use the trimmers at all due to fire risk.[1] Second, operators of trimmers don't like th…

Hang on. You're the rsync guy and you're also running a ranch? DAYUM. I'm gobsmacked. Do you have an RSync Ranch blog somewhere?

Re: Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

#210

Post by spearman »

block_dagger wrote: post #98
fooblaster wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be a downer, but given the pervasive amount of plastics in food, it seems essentially impossible to have a meaningful impact on overall plastic consumption for anyone who depends on a supermarket/restaurants for sustenance.

I'm also vegan and buy mostly organic products and cook at home. I get your point, though. There's only so much we can do. The tofu I eat daily comes in plastic containers, unfortunately.

Organic food doesn't seem to fare any better in the report.
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