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Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods

plasticlist.org

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

#51

Post by virtue3 »

FriedPickles wrote: post #43

One thing I'd like to see tested: I have a theory that reusable plastic containers leach out most of their chemicals early in their life, so the amount imparted to any food diminishes with each use. Under this theory, I save and reuse old plastic containers for a long time, and avoid new ones (especially single use). Could this be true, or misguided?

Misguided probably...

"They certainly did not advise putting deli containers in the microwave or dishwasher. Warner puts it simply: “The more you reuse them, the more they would be likely to leach chemicals because of the repeated washing and exposure to acidic things and soap, and scouring them in cycles. "

https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/is-it-safe-to-reuse....

tl;dr -> if you care about your health with regards to plastic ingestion, just use glass or metal.

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

#52

Post by ghostly_s »

devindotcom wrote: post #21

Looking forward to more testing like this. I've been trying to consciously avoid anything combining "hot" with "plastic" though there's only so much you can do. Fish are aggregators of this stuff so that's not surprising. Spam and other processed meats and prepared foods also not too surprising (though what's with the Annie's organic mac and cheese being so full of it? Maybe it's the sauce?)... I think the tap water…

Are you looking at the results in the table on the main page? That is tap water treated with some purifying tablet, not straight tap water. There is plain tap water in the full database but it doesn't seem to have levels of anything in excess of established limits.

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

#53

Post by devindotcom »

FriedPickles wrote: post #43

One thing I'd like to see tested: I have a theory that reusable plastic containers leach out most of their chemicals early in their life, so the amount imparted to any food diminishes with each use. Under this theory, I save and reuse old plastic containers for a long time, and avoid new ones (especially single use). Could this be true, or misguided?

Why not both? My guess would be, they release one type of horrible thing early on, then graduate to some other horrible thing through short term degradation.

We switched out plastic containers for glass and silicone for the most part some time back. Personally I was just routinely disappointed with the quality of the tupperware-type things, so why not spent a few bucks more once and get something that lasts? It still will have a plastic top or parts but you can at least heat it up in the glass part.

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

#54

Post by devindotcom »

ghostly_s wrote: post #52
devindotcom wrote: post #21

Looking forward to more testing like this. I've been trying to consciously avoid anything combining "hot" with "plastic" though there's only so much you can do. Fish are aggregators of this stuff so that's not surprising. Spam and other processed meats and prepared foods also not too surprising (though what's with the Annie's organic mac and cheese being so full of it? Maybe it's the sauce?)... I think the tap water…

Are you looking at the results in the table on the main page? That is tap water treated with some purifying tablet, not straight tap water. There is plain tap water in the full database but it doesn't seem to have levels of anything in excess of established limits.

My mistake, I didn't see that part. I thought the tablet treatment was just something they did to prepare it for testing. Maybe the tablets kill the microfauna via microplastic overdose.

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

#55

Post by BadHumans »

jeffbee wrote: post #40
blargey wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual foods with plenty of detected DEHP/DBP: Salmon, Chicken breast, Beef (ribeye), Rice, Pasta, Tomatoes, Cow Milk, and a Stanford University Dining Meal (Beans, Chicken, Rice, Cauliflower)

There's only one tomato item and it's ND across the board? Agree on the other stuff, you shouldn't eat animal products because of the bioaccumulation issues. I punched in all the stuff I ate this week and almost none of it is in their test. It's very skewed to weird processed stuff, there's only a few items from real produce markets.

It's skewed towards what a bunch of Bay area college students and their friends eat. Seems accurate to me.

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

#58

Post by SerCe »

SerCe wrote: post #50
FriedPickles wrote: post #43

One thing I'd like to see tested: I have a theory that reusable plastic containers leach out most of their chemicals early in their life, so the amount imparted to any food diminishes with each use. Under this theory, I save and reuse old plastic containers for a long time, and avoid new ones (especially single use). Could this be true, or misguided?

Not exactly food containers, but apparently, textiles release most of their microplastics after the first few washes [1]. So, the longer you wear a tshirt, the safer it becomes. [1]: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-te...

At the same time, some containers like Huskee cups literally start breaking down after a few years [1], so it’s not just microplastics, but you can see bigger chunks of plastic ending up in your food.

[1]: https://uk.help.huskee.co/en-US/what-does-end-of-life-cups-r...

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

#59

Post by energy123 »

Can someone explain why this is the case:

The salmon in the first table shows BPA levels at 500-1000% the safe level, with salmon near the top of the range of all tested products, but in the separate "Results" page, if I search for "salmon", the same products show up but the BPA levels are only around the 20th percentile of tested samples.

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

#60

Post by rozal »

gertlex wrote: post #19
rtpg wrote: post #2

The boba tea result alone makes me want to never drink that again. Was a fun little treat while it lasted…

It seems noteworthy, but not commented that I can see (in the article), that the different samples of "Boba Guys Black Tea Pearls" have 20x variation in measured amount. So what's up with that? (I have uninformed ideas...)

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