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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#871

Post by totallydang »

timr wrote: post #837
kelipso wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only have to huff it for a few seconds, and then turn off the heat. The symptoms are what shows up hours later.

how much of "it" is there? what is the concentration? dose makes the poison, not time.

These so-called perfluorochemicals are toxic to humans at single-digit parts per trillion.

If you live in the US, chances are your blood already contains these chemicals at 4,000 ppt or greater (four thousand parts per trillion is the nationwide average).

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#872

Post by ansonhoyt »

gav wrote: post #668
svachalek wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some things maybe, but usually there's an option where the risk is pretty negligible. I feel pretty confident we're not going to declare wooden spatulas to be a massive health concern.

There's a risk for wooden ones that are glued, specifically bamboo, or finished with something toxic. You should probably stick to ones made from a single piece of hardwood and are unfinished. There's also a risk that any cracks will fill with bacteria.

The latest issue of Fine Woodworking agrees and explains why this is true:

* "The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None at All", https://www.finewoodworking.com/2024/10/10/the-best-food-saf...

TLDR; unfinished wood that is rinsed and dried on all sides will naturally trap and kill bacteria as it dries. Any finish interferes with this process.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#873

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

khafra wrote: post #869
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #855

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The magic of deposit refund system is that you only pay more once. Your insight into the economics of this is shallow. If plastic is cheaper than glass, a "deposit refund scheme" doesn't fix the fact that forcing everything to glass makes it more expensive. Glass jars aren't just washed and reused, they have to be melted down to be reused at all. There's a big fuel usage penalty there (not to mention this is fossil…

> Glass jars aren't just washed and reused, they have to be melted down to be reused at all. Glass, unlike plastic, is impermeable. In Germany, the pfand system incentivizes bottle return by around $.10 to $.50 per glass bottle; and they're washed & sterilized, then re-used. This does work as a subsidy for poor people with time on their hands; pfand bottles are often left next to outdoor trash cans instead of in them…

> Glass, unlike plastic, is impermeable. In Germany, the pfand system incentivizes bottle return by around $.10 to $.50 per glass bottle; and they're washed & sterilized, then re-used.

Glass jars tend to have small fractures, especially around where the lid/cap are, making them unfit for reuse. Inspection is tedious and manpower-intensive. Melted down and put back into the blow molds, if reused at all. Industry works differently than the political perception of it. You might want them to be reused, but it's just not the way the world works.

Instead of jacking off over political videos, go watch some of the non-political ones of the "how it's made" variety once in awhile.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#874

Post by timr »

totallydang wrote: post #871
timr wrote: post #837

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how much of "it" is there? what is the concentration? dose makes the poison, not time.

These so-called perfluorochemicals are toxic to humans at single-digit parts per trillion. If you live in the US, chances are your blood already contains these chemicals at 4,000 ppt or greater (four thousand parts per trillion is the nationwide average).

> These so-called perfluorochemicals are toxic to humans at single-digit parts per trillion.

No, they aren't. At least, not in the way you're interpreting the word "toxic".

> If you live in the US, chances are your blood already contains these chemicals at 4,000 ppt or greater

The fact that you're telling me that I'm currently thriving with 1000x the "toxic" dose you just quoted should tell you that at least one of the statements is exaggerated.

Again, there are people out there who will tell you that any exposure to certain chemicals is "toxic". These people are not worth listening to.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#875

Post by totallydang »

timr wrote: post #874
totallydang wrote: post #871

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These so-called perfluorochemicals are toxic to humans at single-digit parts per trillion. If you live in the US, chances are your blood already contains these chemicals at 4,000 ppt or greater (four thousand parts per trillion is the nationwide average).

> These so-called perfluorochemicals are toxic to humans at single-digit parts per trillion. No, they aren't. At least, not in the way you're interpreting the word "toxic". > If you live in the US, chances are your blood already contains these chemicals at 4,000 ppt or greater The fact that you're telling me that I'm currently thriving with 1000x the "toxic" dose you just quoted should tell you that at least one of t…

You are doing damage control for multinational chemical corporations. Why would you be worth listening to?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#876

Post by shiroiushi »

idiotsecant wrote: post #864
shiroiushi wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for. >educating her about how much plastic and teflon she has (and by extension I have) been eating over the years but it's in one ear and out the other. I have much the same problem, though luckily I haven't lived with her for ages. According to her, eating plastic and te…

Is she wrong?

Well she's been saying this for at least 10 years now I think, so she's lived longer than she expected to.

She also has guests and visitors, so even if she doesn't care about ingesting microplastics herself, she should worry more about them I should think.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#877

Post by khafra »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #873
khafra wrote: post #869

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Glass jars aren't just washed and reused, they have to be melted down to be reused at all. Glass, unlike plastic, is impermeable. In Germany, the pfand system incentivizes bottle return by around $.10 to $.50 per glass bottle; and they're washed & sterilized, then re-used. This does work as a subsidy for poor people with time on their hands; pfand bottles are often left next to outdoor trash cans instead of in them…

> Glass, unlike plastic, is impermeable. In Germany, the pfand system incentivizes bottle return by around $.10 to $.50 per glass bottle; and they're washed & sterilized, then re-used. Glass jars tend to have small fractures, especially around where the lid/cap are, making them unfit for reuse. Inspection is tedious and manpower-intensive. Melted down and put back into the blow molds, if reused at all. Industry works…

I live in Germany and I see glass bottles that have been obviously re-used--e.g., beer from one brewery in glass embossed with the slightly-raised lettering of another brewery.

I couldn't tell you whether it's economically efficient or energy-efficient to do things that way, when you consider all the direct and indirect inputs; any more than I could tell you how to make a pencil. But I can tell you that Germany does it.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#878

Post by edgriebel »

r00fus wrote: post #715
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually “nonstick” in the cooking context means “nonstick without any added fat”. So a stainless steel pan is never “nonstick”.

Fear of fat has completely killed this country's health. Fat is a necessary part of food. Fat doesn't make you fat, refined sugar does.

while factual (and quite alarming if I'm honest), it is factually a non sequitur for the commonly held definition of "non-stick pan"

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#879

Post by PittleyDunkin »

mmooss wrote: post #695
a123b456c wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Academics who specialize in obscure areas love to get their name in the press, and the easiest way to do that is to go to a reporter and make vague and irresponsible claims about risks to human health, even if those risks are very, very small. I won't deny that many such academics exist. And yet... The numerous successful academics at reputable universities that I know (including me) are uniformly mortified when ou…

> If you want to find an incentive to get undeserved attention I think social media - such as HN comments that shoot down almost every OP without fail - is by far the best example? Most comments on social media on such things seek attention for being smarter-than-though and have no basis in anything, including the comment at the top of this thread by 'gidmkhealthnerd'. > All the opposite of the academic world. The pu…

> such as HN comments that shoot down almost every OP without fail

If the OP can't handle criticism it's hard to argue that the attention is deserved

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#880

Post by zemo »

darajava wrote: post #820
zemo wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people generally don't use metal tools on enameled cast iron, which is plenty strong

you can use wood on enamelled cast iron. Why would you use a spatula with enamelled cast iron?

to flip an egg?
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