1000s of Toxins from food packaging found in humans – research

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/27/pfas-toxins-chemicals-human-body

by prmph • 2 years ago

37 11 2 years ago

Going plastic free is very hard today. I'd be interested to know if people have managed inroads on this problem in their own lives.

subjectsigma• 2 years ago

I’m assuming you mean “completely plastic free”. I’ve been slowly removing plastic and teflon from my kitchen and replacing it with wood, cast iron, glass, ceramic, and silicon as appropriate. This isn’t difficult at all, just expensive, esp if you have a lot of kitchen utensils.

I do meal prep and avoid eating takeout or frozen foods as much as possible, though I’m far from perfect.

I feel like this probably reduces my exposure to plastic particles by like 80% and the last 20% is unachievable unless I go live in the woods alone and hunt for food. So I’m pretty happy with it.

ddmf• 2 years ago

sadly it may be the opposite way - the last 80% being unachievable due to the sheer amount of plastic particles produced by tyres.

rookderby• 2 years ago

We're reducing where we can. We have two young kids and threw out most of their plastic plates and cups. We kept a few for their utility. Heat increases transmissibility, so don't put hot consumables in or on plastic and don't cook with plastics. Especially avoid plastic cooking utensils and styrofoam cups. Currently we have an abundance of food and drink options, so just go without at the convenience store, choose the metal / glass options when necessary, or plan ahead by bringing a stainless steel or glass bottle. Most stores will let you put coffee or drink in your own container - it actually saves them the cost of a cup. TFA recommends moving food from plastic and styrofoam containers into a glass one when buying take-out or from a grocery to reduce the time plastics have to leach into your foods. I've mentally equated it to smoking a cigarette.

vorpalhex3• 2 years ago

The word toxin does not appear once in the original study. At most it has claims of "unknown toxicity" which is.. technically correct but very misleading.

Study only says that yes, we tend to consume some of whatever we use for food storage.

zug_zug2• 2 years ago

Yeah, important distinction. But also I think hopefully there's some understanding that random things aren't good.

My attitude used to be "who cares if there's a bit of random chemicals in your body, what's the worst that can happen?" but then I learned that tons of random chemicals happen to interact with our biology, like Xenoestrogens which are a whole class of chemicals (some in food packaging, like soda cans) that fit into estrogen receptors in the body and act like estrogens.

vorpalhex3• 2 years ago

Unless you're already exercising 20 minutes a day, eating very healthy, meditating and engaging in appropriate weight training and making all your doctors appointments, unproven possible interactions from chemicals measured in PPB are so far down the hazard list it doesn't even make the top hundred.

foxyv• 2 years ago

Of all the toxins I deal with on a daily basis, plastics do not concern me nearly as much as the known cancer causing chemicals in car and plane exhaust. I generally hate plastic because it pollutes the ocean and is littered everywhere.

I try to reduce my consumption of plastic because it just honestly sucks. But worrying about toxins in plastic is the least of my worries when cars are dumping tire debris and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons in the air just 50 feet away.

blackeyeblitzar• 2 years ago

Even if they were not packaged in plastic at the store, they probably contact plastic throughout the supply chain. Consumers can’t see that and so they can’t make a choice about it. Which is why we need regulation here. Or more labeling and transparency.

1000s of Toxins from food packaging found in humans – research

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