[HN Gopher] PlasticList - Plastic Levels in Foods
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PlasticList - Plastic Levels in Foods
Author : homebrewer
Score : 252 points
Date : 2025-06-24 14:18 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.plasticlist.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.plasticlist.org)
| cmaggiulli wrote:
| Oh shit I've been drinking powdered milk from 1952 Korean war
| rations basically every day.
| Mr_Eri_Atlov wrote:
| Top tier shitpost
| mock-possum wrote:
| I know I promised not to, but I am indeed freaking out a little
| bit.
| showerst wrote:
| Going by the lower limit of 20,000 ng/kg, a 70kg person has a
| limit of 1,400,000 ng/day for DEHP and 70MM ng/day DEHT.
|
| So am I reading this right you're probably an order of magnitude
| below the 'safe' limit even if you subsist solely off of RXBars
| and Sweetgreen? Which is not so far from me at one point in my
| 30s...
|
| I didn't expect to open this chart and feel _better_ about my
| plastic consumption, maybe I'm just misunderstanding the chart.
| It seems even if the limits are 10x too high, you're still
| probably fine.
| jvanderbot wrote:
| There is an option to view the total daily recommendations, and
| many of the tested-for items do not have one. So, what is OK
| for those?
|
| But yes, eating even a pound of the 100th percentile food daily
| seems to have well below the recommended amounts. So - update
| the recommendations?
| markasoftware wrote:
| The "report" tab on the website shows which items are above
| federal recommended limits. The vast majority of tested items
| are within the limits. So yes, if you're only concerned with
| what the federal government considers safe, the action item is
| "probably nothing". But the report page also brings up a lot of
| good reasons to doubt that the federal limits are sufficient.
| bobywoodwarrior wrote:
| Love the UI !
| dmm wrote:
| It's interesting that several products from the 1920s contain
| measurable quantities of DEHP, which was apparently first
| synthesized in the 1930s. How did that happen?
|
| For example, the cocoa powder from the 1920s
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/990
| giantg2 wrote:
| That is interesting. I wonder if it's a byproduct of another
| process and the 1930s date was only when it was commercially
| produced in isolation.
| eestrada wrote:
| The most disturbing is "Raw Cow Milk from Farm in Glass". It
| still is loaded with plastic, even though it is one of the least
| processed things on the list.
|
| My only question is was the cow milked by hand or by machine? The
| tubing in a milking machine almost certainly contains plastic.
|
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/29
| xnx wrote:
| Fortunately, raw cow milk is unnecessary for humans (good for
| baby cows though!) and easy to avoid.
| eestrada wrote:
| I bring up raw milk because it is minimally processed (I
| don't even consume it personally). I used it as an example
| because it shows how much plastic is embedded in the food
| chain and ecosystem by looking at one of the least processed
| items on the list.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Many livestock feeds have some level of plastic in them.
| dehrmann wrote:
| Hay is often bound up into bales with plastic twine. Cattle
| happily eat bits on accident. They used to use wire, but that
| caused a much more serious problem for the cattle.
| giantg2 wrote:
| They used to use natural twines like jute, which was
| better. They really don't eat much of the plastic stuff.
| The larger pieces of it do kill them (choking, cholic,
| etc).
| kylebenzle wrote:
| Now we will wrap the bales in 5 to 10 lb of plastic each,
| so they last longer!
| CalRobert wrote:
| Silage uses insane amounts of plastic wrap and then is left
| in direct sunlight to decay
| kylebenzle wrote:
| I visited the largest pig farm in Ohio and they grind up bags
| of old dog food, plastic bags and everything. Literally
| pallets full of expired food, just dumped into the grinder.
| Then they spread the waste and sell it as organic fertilizer,
| plastic is now everything.
| cyberax wrote:
| Milk is really great at extracting plasticizers from plastic.
| It contains natural fats and emulsifiers, after all.
|
| I'd expect that it can pull all kinds of chemicals from the
| milking equipment.
| purple_ferret wrote:
| No chance any commercially available milk is getting hand
| milked.
| 9rx wrote:
| _> even though it is one of the least processed things on the
| list._
|
| It is in a glass bottle, so maybe not the greatest example:
| https://www.sciencealert.com/glass-bottles-actually-contain-...
|
| Straight from the cow would be far more interesting with
| respect to what you are bringing up, albeit beyond the scope of
| the broader discussion.
| xnx wrote:
| Weird to see how much attention plastics in food are getting
| despite no(?) evidence of harm vs. something like consuming too
| much sugar or alcohol, and BPA/BPS in receipt paper
| (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/well/health-effects-
| paper...).
|
| It's very hard to maintain a mental ranked list of health things
| to be worried about when hypothetical concerns get more
| attention/coverage the confirmed ones.
| cg5280 wrote:
| This website does have a column for BPA/BPS and receipts are
| indeed listed.
| showerst wrote:
| Sugar and alcohol are clearly labelled and provide an obvious
| benefit, so people feel empowered to make that cost/benefit
| trade-off.
|
| Microplastics do nebulous harm, and it's difficult or
| impossible to control intake.
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| What is the obvious benefit of alcohol?
| crazygringo wrote:
| Relaxation. Stress reduction. Being able to connect with
| people in a way you might not be able to otherwise.
|
| Obviously, varies dramatically from person to person.
| williamdclt wrote:
| "Obvious" is maybe not quite the word I'd use, but lower
| inhibition, fun and social aspects are benefits of (a
| reasonable use of) alcohol
|
| (Not saying it's a good trade off or that it's the only or
| best way to achieve these things obviously)
| cpp_frog wrote:
| It's easier to walk up to the woman that's been eyeing you
| at the party, speaking from experience.
| tantalor wrote:
| Calories.
| cortesoft wrote:
| Plastics provide an even more obvious benefit than alcohol.
| kodt wrote:
| No one wants to consume plastic however, while with sugar and
| alcohol consuming it is the goal. What is the upside to
| consuming plastic?
| naberhausj wrote:
| Cheap, ubiquitous plastics have revolutionized every industry
| (tools, food, automotive, etc...). We wouldn't be able to
| consume anywhere close to current level without them.
|
| Not saying that's a good thing. But giving up plastics (not
| just in our personal life, but across the entire supply chain
| we rely on) would probably be harder for the average American
| than giving up alcohol for a drunk.
| culi wrote:
| Yeah giving up plastic would be hard but we have to _start_
| pushing it in the right direction. A person in 2025 might
| find it basically impossible to avoid microplastics but if
| we make changes now someone in 2040 might be able to do it
| bigie35 wrote:
| While you're correct, my freakout lies in the fact that
| microplastics have been found to bypass the blood brain
| barrier...
|
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03453-1
| dredmorbius wrote:
| _Can the conclusion of 'no risk' be supported by 'no data'? One
| of the common pitfalls in critical thinking is to neglect the
| logic that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
| The 'having plastic particles in your body is safe' conclusion
| conjures up a classic error known as the 'appeal to ignorance'
| fallacy Locke (1690), which is, 'there is no evidence against
| x. Therefore x is true.' This type of statement has no place in
| rational thinking. Note that to propagate claims of this type
| is to unduly shift the burden of proof onto those seeking
| conclusive evidence._
|
| ...
|
| _The European Environment Agency's two Late Lessons from Early
| Warnings reports (European Environment Agency, 2013, European
| Environment Agency, 1896-2000) highlighted the danger. The
| reports analyze the impact of past inaction (or action) on
| environmental damage caused by, for example, polychlorinated
| biphenyls (PCBs), and public health issues generated by
| exposure to asbestos or diethylstilbestrol (DES). Each case is
| deconstructed to identify patterns leading to delays in
| appropriate decision making. The insights led to
| recommendations regarding how to respond to new warnings with
| the precautionary principle, i.e. to act to reduce potential
| harm as the preliminary signs of harm are still arising. It is
| interesting to note that the EEA had difficulty in identifying
| any cases of overregulation of a pollutant that had turned out
| to be benign when all the science was in. Most early warnings
| turn out to be legitimate. The costs of inaction are often
| drastically underestimated (European Environment Agency,
| 2013)._
|
| "Where is the evidence that human exposure to microplastics is
| safe?", HA Leslie, MH Depledge, _Environ Int._ 2020 Jun
| 26;142:105807.
|
| <https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7319653/>
|
| We _are_ aware of harms from materials leaching from plastics,
| as well as direct harms from PFAS (
| <https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-
| hea...>) and BPA (<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25813067/>),
| to name only two of the myriad compounds and constituents of
| plastics.
|
| Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
| chiffre01 wrote:
| "despite no(?) evidence of harm" If you look up most of the
| chemicals on the list, all of them have suspected health
| impacts and the most have been confirmed to be harmful in some
| degree or another.
|
| For example: DEHP - Endocrine disruption, disruptor of thyroid
| function, Ingestion of 0.01% caused damage to the blood-testis
| barrier... etc
|
| source:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bis(2-ethylhexyl)_phthalate
| phoronixrly wrote:
| I came here to be explained to how eating plastic is not only
| not bad, but actually good for you. And HN, as always, did
| not disappoint, like the other day when a guy here explained
| to me that lead is good for you and iron is poison, and if I
| disagree I should prove it to him.
| frankdenbow wrote:
| Iron certainly can be poisonous
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459224/
| johncole wrote:
| It's almost impossible to remember to do all the things to keep
| healthy for sure.
| user____name wrote:
| I'm assuming because the body can break down sugar and alcohol
| but not plastics?
| xnx wrote:
| If the plastic passes through us without breaking down, how
| worried should we be?
| chiffre01 wrote:
| The 1952 Korean war rations are comparable with Whole Foods
| Boneless Beef Ribeye Steak Grass Fed ?
| dredmorbius wrote:
| One class of items not listed here, which I'd recently started to
| think might be less-than-optimal: pepper sold in jars with built-
| in, plastic, grinders.
|
| I'd long since noted that as the jar emptied the grinders were
| increasingly ineffective. Thinking on _why_ that might be ... I
| realised that this was because as you grind the pepper, you 're
| also grinding plastic directly into your food.
|
| There's surprisingly little discussion about this that I can
| find, though this 5 y.o. Stackexchange question addresses the
| concern:
|
| <https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/103003/microplas...>
|
| Seems to me that plastic grinders, whether disposable or sold as
| (apparently) durable products, are a class of products which
| simply shouldn't exist.
|
| Searching, e.g., Walmart for "plastic grinders" turns up five
| listings presently, though it's not clear whether it's the _body_
| or the _grinder itself_ which is plastic. In several cases it
| seems to be the latter.
|
| <https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/plastic-grinders>
|
| (Archive of current state: <https://archive.is/yIIX4>
| williamdclt wrote:
| The grinder itself is almost certainly always plastic in these.
| Even in refillable grinders, in the low-medium range the burr
| is often plastic
| dredmorbius wrote:
| It's (thankfully) still possible to buy all-metal grinders,
| ensuring one a reliable source of dietary steel.
|
| Krell or otherwise.
| agotterer wrote:
| Thanks, I hadn't considered the plastic on the pepper grinder.
| Guess I'll be looking for a new pepper grinder as I continue my
| pursuit of removing plastic and dangerous chemicals from the
| kitchen. So far the pans, tupperware, and cooking utensils have
| all been replaced.
|
| While not food, another not so frequently talked about plastic
| exposure could be clothing dryer vents pushing materials from
| synthetic clothing into the air. It's likely less of a problem
| than the rubber tires on our cars making their way into the
| air. But it was something that occurred to me while cleaning
| out the dryer vent this past weekend.
| hedora wrote:
| I'm definitely buying natural fiber clothing moving forward
| for this reason.
|
| However, I wonder how bad eating bits of the plastic burr
| grinder actually is. Presumably, they mostly pass through.
| Stomach acid probably leaches a bunch of stuff, but is it
| worse than (say) canned tomatoes that were sitting in a
| plastic liner for a year? I'd wager the grinder bits have a
| lot of surface area from scarring. That'd increase leaching.
|
| Anyway, I strongly recommend small turkish-style grinders:
|
| https://bazaaranatolia.com/products/turkish-grinder-
| pepper-m...
|
| (No idea if this brand is decent; the form factor is great,
| especially for $14)
|
| It has roughly a single-recipe capacity, so I stick crushed
| red pepper flakes, cumin seed, celery seed, black pepper
| kernels, etc in it per the recipe, then grind until it is
| empty. The burr on the one I linked is metal.
|
| I'd probably prefer stainless body + whatever is commonly
| used for espresso grinders, assuming such a gadget exists.
| kube-system wrote:
| > (No idea if this brand is decent; the form factor is
| great, especially for $14)
|
| > These grinders are made of Zamak (brass and zinc)
|
| If it's real brand-name ZAMAK, then it should at least be
| low in lead :)
| johncole wrote:
| Your biggest exposure is going to be water, hands down. What
| you store it in, how you filter it, these are going to be
| major sources of plastics and pfas.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Yes and PFAS/PFOS is now getting directly linked to rise in
| colorectal cancers.
|
| Personally I would prioritize water filtering for PFAS over
| microplastics worries if you have limited budget to start
| changing consumption patterns.
| agotterer wrote:
| Agreed, already on it! I put Wedell Water filters on all
| of our shower heads and we have a filtration system for
| our kitchen sink water. I'd love to get a whole home
| water filter at some point.
| danw1979 wrote:
| what's the vector for microplastics in shower water
| causing you harm ? swallowing some of it or through the
| skin or something else ?
| moffkalast wrote:
| Nothing says capitalism quite like a corporation
| polluting the entire planet with something they knew
| caused disease, actively gaslighted everyone involved,
| transferred liability to a sacrificial entity so they got
| zero punishment for it, and the rest of us are left to
| buy water filters for the rest of history if we want
| clean water.
|
| 3M and Dupont deserve the death penalty for it and
| should've been dissolved completely for crimes against
| humanity.
| j-conn wrote:
| Any specific products you'd recommend for this?
| dombesz wrote:
| I wonder why do you think that? According to the website,
| unfiltered tap water is not really bad. Am I missing
| something?
| leptons wrote:
| Same here. I am going to disassemble the cheap pepper
| grinders I recently bought to make sure there is no plastic
| in the grinding operation.
|
| I switched to bamboo toothbrushes from plastic a while ago,
| before de-plasticizing was really a thing. Now I'm glad I
| did, because plastic bristles grinding against my teeth seems
| like an easy way for plastic to get inside my body. The
| bamboo toothbrushes are pretty nice too, the bristles are
| soft but firm, and the handle is made of bamboo too.
| fragmede wrote:
| Your teeth seem pretty hard though, to the point that a
| specialist has to go over them with metal tools every year
| to clean them.
| leptons wrote:
| and... plastic is not that hard, so the teeth should be
| able to grind down the plastic bristles as you brush your
| teeth. I'd find it hard to believe that no plastic is
| lost during brushing of teeth.
|
| The idea of brushing my teeth with plastic has lost its
| appeal for me and will never be recovered.
| alwa wrote:
| Personally, I spit out whatever happens when I brush my
| teeth. But bamboo does sound like a more pleasant
| experience all the way around.
| andruby wrote:
| Mentioned elsewhere too but Peugeot (yes the car company)
| has been making top quality affordable pepper grinders for
| over a century.
|
| The simple wooden ones last a decade or longer and cost
| about 35 $/EUR/PS
| Gigachad wrote:
| All disposable grinders are going to be plastic, and likely
| none of the refillable ones will be since the plastic burrs
| only last one usage before they are all chipped off in to
| your food.
| kylebenzle wrote:
| We 100% know and are well aware that food items like cutting
| boards, plastic-ware, etc. are all sources of plastic we
| ingest.
|
| We are doing it on purpose, eating plastic that is, the only
| question is why!
| llm_nerd wrote:
| The why is that plastic is an extremely convenient, cost
| effective way to make lots of things. And the evidence that
| it was deleterious to human health was negligible.
|
| And to be fair, it's still fairly uncertain. We demonstrated
| endocrine problems with BPA, but aside from that microplastic
| consequences on health still seems uncertain. At best we're
| mostly doing the correlation/causation thing that leads
| people down a confusing path of cure-alls and snake oil.
|
| If there was a smoking gun for the consequences of this in
| our day to day living, surely it would be regulated out of
| existence[1], but thus far that evidence doesn't exist.
|
| [1] - ha ha, who am I kidding. In reality industry groups
| would muddy the waters, try to pretend it's "political",
| finance astroturfing groups, and soon enough a certain
| segment of society will be proudly clutching onto their
| microplastics, demanding higher dose services, and ascribing
| it with magical cure-all powers.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > surely it would be regulated out of existence[1], but
| thus far that evidence doesn't exist.
|
| surely, it's not so sure, especially with the current
| administration reversing so many existing policies. for
| example, reversing the restriction of asbestos is currently
| in the works. so adding new regulations on plastics use
| seems like something that the current policy makers will
| absolutely _not_ be considering. at this point, I would not
| be shocked if they said they were reversing the bans on
| lead in gasoline or paints
| tantalor wrote:
| This was just posted today on r/BuyItForLife,
|
| > After reading about micro plastics in the disposable salt and
| pepper grinders from the big box, stores broke down and bought
| these very nice all metal mechanism grinders.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/1liyril/after...
| MetaWhirledPeas wrote:
| Is the plastic you ingest this way significant though? I don't
| remember the details, but the Veritasium video on this subject
| suggested that the scraped teflon you ingest from pans is less
| significant than the plastic that leeches into food in products
| like microwave popcorn. I assume this has to do with the
| reaction between the substance being contained (popcorn oil, in
| this case) and the item containing it (plastic-lined paper).
|
| If the plastic particles are large enough, I assume we pass
| them.
| nosianu wrote:
| > _Is the plastic you ingest this way significant though?_
|
| The follow-up question you might want to ask though is: How
| often do you want to ask that question?
|
| Yes, every tiny little bit is insignificant. That is true for
| most things, including actual direct poisons.
|
| A better way to look at such discussions is not to assume
| that _this_ very specific thing you are currently looking at
| is the one, only complete problem. Remember instead, in these
| posts we are looking at lots and lots and lots of tiny
| details, only a tiny part of the whole problem space.
|
| Do you repeat that relevancy question for every single part?
| The answer, when you split the problem enough, is always
| "relevance is near zero".
|
| That is the problem of our tiny brains not being able to
| comprehend the whole, requiring us to look at tiny parts one
| at a time. When you create the sum, or the integral, of a
| huge number of rounded-down zeroes you get zero, and now you
| have the wrong answer for the whole of the problem.
|
| Even big problems consist of a huge number of tiny parts.
| Asking the summary question on each tiny part is not a good
| method.
|
| Every tiny bit of plastic we find is exactly just that - one
| tiny piece of the big picture. By itself and alone it would
| be inconsequential. If it was just that one single source of
| plastic particles, we would not have this discussion. We are
| here, performing such research, having such discussions,
| because we have a very large number of such tiny pieces. The
| question of relevancy is for the whole. Whether this one
| particular piece of microplastic you ate today, which came
| from your plastic pepper mill, is the tipping point is not a
| useful or answerable question, it's all of them combined over
| time.
| filcuk wrote:
| Teflon is typically not the issue, it's very non-reactive and
| non-sticky (duh), meaning it just passes through. Attaching
| such material to metal takes some serious chemistry, though.
| tristor wrote:
| I am a huge fan of Unicorn Pepper Mills:
| https://www.unicornmills.org/ as a buy-it-for-life item that
| truly works better than alternatives. That said, they do have
| plastic bodies, but the grinder mechanism is entirely made from
| metals and ceramic.
| adriand wrote:
| I use a mortar and pestle (both made of stone) and would highly
| recommend it!
| moralestapia wrote:
| PlasticList is amazing and thank your raising these issues, it
| never crossed my mind and I use this everyday!
|
| That linked StackExchange thread perfectly portrays why the
| site went down the drain.
|
| >Maybe you'll ingest more microplastic on fish or proteins in
| higher food chain than grinders.
|
| >If you drink tea you've got a lot more to worry about in terms
| of ingestion.
|
| OK ... ?
|
| >Your concern, although logically valid, is nearly impossible
| to regulate or even measure.
|
| And yet, PlasticList is a thing.
|
| >We're talking about amount that is, literally, microscopic.
|
| Yeah Einstein, that's why they're called _micro_ plastics.
|
| I am SO glad that place is extinct now.
| alwa wrote:
| Peugeot--yes, they of the cars--make an excellent line of
| steel-based pepper grinders, and a great nutmeg mill as well.
| Along with hoop skirts and lawnmowers and much more,
| apparently, over the 200 years since the family started their
| first steel mill:
|
| https://us.peugeot-saveurs.com/en_us/inspiration/history/
|
| The car business sold to Stellantis, but the lineage's
| kaleidoscope of other enterprises apparently continues.
| andruby wrote:
| I love them and have bought half a dozen over the years. My
| dad gifted me one when I moved out decades ago.
|
| A good pepper grinder (and the Peugeot's are top notch) is
| such an obviously valuable purchase. Lasts a decade and fresh
| pepper from a good grinder is much tastier. One of the best
| $35 to spend imo
| rsync wrote:
| meh. I like the _aesthetics_ of the Peugeot grinder but it is
| flawed.
|
| Specifically: the grinder top is not mated with reverse
| threads. This means the act of grinding loosens the top. I
| have to stop and re-tighten quite frequently.
|
| I suppose the design is perfect if you are left-handed ...
| egberts1 wrote:
| Shocking comparison (search for 'sugar', only 2 results) on:
|
| - Korean War-era sugar ration
|
| Vs.
|
| - store-bought sugar
| cheeseomlit wrote:
| What is the deal with whole foods grass-fed ribeye?
|
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/65
|
| What are they grazing on, plastic lawn turf?
| johncole wrote:
| Beef cows are accumulators. And their feed often contains
| plastics.
| cheeseomlit wrote:
| Just thought it was interesting considering they are 'grass-
| fed'. Is that just a lie? Or maybe it's something else, like
| if they're drinking water from plastic containers that sit in
| the sun all day
| johncole wrote:
| It's a good point. I'm not an ag lawyer, but I am willing
| to bet that there's wiggle room in any grass-fed definition
| set by the USDA.
|
| And you're right, there's also: plastic from water sources,
| plastic in the field that gets taken up by the gras,
| supplements given to the cow, plastic in the cutting board
| the meat was cut in, plastic the meat was wrapped in . . .
| it's hard to get plastic out of your supply chain.
| kube-system wrote:
| You're probably imagining the marketing depiction of "grass
| fed"
|
| https://www.primalmeats.co.uk/wp-
| content/uploads/2016/12/gra...
|
| But nobody said it was coming straight off the ground!
|
| https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/cows-eating-trough-made-
| blue...
|
| https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2CFFY4J/hay-bales-wrapped-in-
| heavy...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Some previous discussion late last year:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42525633
| metalrain wrote:
| The amount of different units just stunts me, we are really
| early.
| johncole wrote:
| This list is amazing, but at some point you have to prioritize
| what you're paying attention to.
|
| Your most dangerous plastic or microplastic is the PFAS. And the
| biggest source of PFAS is the water you drink. Does it run
| through plastic tubing? A pfas filter at any point? Sit in a
| plastic jug?
|
| The most effective way to deal with this is to distill your
| water. Distilled water is nearly pfas free, and also removes
| bpas, lead, mercury, and any bacteria.[1]
|
| https://learn.pfasfreelife.com/research/distillers-remove-pf...
| johncole wrote:
| The original article even alludes to this. The first thing at
| the top of the list is water from a purifier:
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/460
| mannanj wrote:
| Another we refuse to accept and admit, due to the implications of
| other things that touch our skins, are the plastics from
| polyester fabrics that enter our body through our skin stream.
| The skin is the largest organ and has the largest surface area
| exposure, and these polyesters are one of the largest polluters
| of micro and nano plastics into the environment - and
| effectively, our bodies, the skin being one of the most efficient
| filters and processors of the plastic poison in them.
|
| Don't research the poison of the plastics that wash out of those
| volatile fibers whiilst in the laundry machines. Oh, did you
| think that the only source of the micro-plastics in the water
| supply was water bottles?
| CSSer wrote:
| I've taken prenatal vitamins for as long as I can remember
| because they're FDA regulated to actually contain the nutrients
| they claim to include. I never would've thought that could be a
| source for microplastics.
|
| Separately, I always knew there was a reason those RXBars taste
| like plastic. /s
| nottorp wrote:
| Uh. Forget plastics, I love the presentation.
|
| Any web dev type can tell me what framework, if any, is that done
| with?
| davidmurdoch wrote:
| Not a fan of the scroll re-alignment behavior on mobile though.
| batrat wrote:
| Same. I would like to know too.
| Sn0wCoder wrote:
| Its a next.js site using Tailwind -- https://departuremono.com/
| -- https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Mono -- some
| other fonts mixed in
|
| Other that that just styled HTML based on a quick look at the
| debugger window if there was another framework used its not
| obvious...
| nottorp wrote:
| Oh, so the magic is in the custom style and the fonts mostly.
| Thanks!
| zkmon wrote:
| So, what's the action item for the consumers? How much if this
| gets outside of our digestion system? What's the impact of that?
| What are the remedies?
| aydyn wrote:
| There's 10,000s ng of plastic in a Starbuck's Latte ...
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/173
| cjflog wrote:
| While PlasticList has already tested hundreds of products and
| found plastic chemicals in 86% of them, laboratory.love lets you
| crowdfund testing for the specific products you actually buy.
|
| Think of it as democratizing PlasticList's methodology: you
| choose what gets tested, we handle the logistics of sample
| collection + lab work, and results are published openly to
| pressure companies toward cleaner supply chains.
| culi wrote:
| Are you associated with plastic.love? If so you should be
| explicit about it.
|
| Also, if it's crowdfunded, why am I unable to see any finished
| results without giving you my email?
| ls-a wrote:
| Is this TikTok or HN!
| gavmor wrote:
| > Consider this a snapshot of our raw test results, suitable as
| a starting point and inspiration for further work, but not
| solid enough on its own to draw conclusions or make policy
| recommendations or even necessarily to alter your personal
| purchasing decisions.
|
| A fairly responsible caveat.
| jjani wrote:
| Super cool project, but I think there's pretty valid nitpick
| here:
|
| It should clearly state the container (when multiple are
| possible) as that's likely the origin of 99.9% of the
| microplastics, as well as temperature. Prime example: "Starbucks
| Matcha Latte". I bet there are orders of magnitude difference in
| microplastic content between getting a hot one in a plastic
| (coated, if not fully) takeaway cup vs an iced one in a mug.
|
| In general, containers and the way they're used generally make
| the difference, but all the focus here is only on the food item.
| TuringNYC wrote:
| Imagine eating $22 SweetGreen salads each day for good
| health...and then seeing it on the top-5 list for plastics.
| ericd wrote:
| Seriously. I think their fibery-looking bowls also tested near
| the top on PFAS by Consumer Reports.
| rsync wrote:
| It's on the top 5 list when sorted "nanograms per serving" but
| if you re-sort the table by "nanograms per gram" it is quite
| low.
|
| But by this same measure (intention of consumer vs. exposure)
| we find a deeper irony:
|
| If you sort the entire dataset by "nanograms per gram", 3 of
| the top 5 items are prenatal vitamins:
|
| https://www.plasticlist.org/product/260
| Isamu wrote:
| I struggle with taking this too seriously YET, knowing that we
| ingest all manner of tiny things, and breathe in all kinds of
| particles and toxins all the time. NOT SAYING this is fine, but
| rather I haven't heard anything yet to bump it up higher in the
| list of concerns.
|
| I mean I already have exposure to lead and asbestos, and the
| random particulates I breathe in aren't going away. I feel like
| this is getting attention because it's a new issue, not that all
| other concerns pale in comparison.
| nikkwong wrote:
| Jesus christ at the numbers on the Rxbars. So much for "4
| ingredients with no B.S.". Kind of insane that they could get up
| to 30,000 ng/serving with such a small serving size consisting of
| something like 4 blueberries, 4 cashews, and 3 dates.
|
| Also the negligible levels of plastic detected in plastic water
| bottles is surprising. I was under the impression, based on other
| reports, that water in plastic bottles is something we should
| avoid.
| kbenson wrote:
| I think that's mostly BPA and phthalates, and microplastics are
| often listed along with those, but I'm unsure if it was
| actually tested or if we notices people had a lot of
| microplastics and just assumed that was a likely source.
| klevertree1 wrote:
| I'm making a product to help trap plasticizers in the digestive
| tract and prevent them from getting into the bloodstream,
| NeutraOat (NeutraOat.com).
|
| I was originally inspired by PlasticList, and actually made a
| quiz on my website based off their data for people to assess
| their plastics exposure (quiz.neutraoat.com)
| any1 wrote:
| I used to work for a company that makes equipment for the food
| processing industry.
|
| Sometimes conveyor belts would be left running for days or even
| weeks in the test area. After a while, you would start to see
| very fine dust on and around the conveyor belts. This was finely
| ground POM plastic. On some occasions, there were actually heaps
| of that stuff forming beneath the conveyor belts.
|
| In the factories, everything gets washed down with pressure
| washers at least once per day, so very little of this stuff goes
| into the food, but it definitely gets washed away out to sea.
|
| I think that there is probably a wide-spread misunderstanding on
| how the micro-plastics enter the food. It does not seem very
| likely that it would come from the packaging or your tupperware
| (unless your tupperware is so old that it has actually started to
| disintegrate). It seems much likelier that the plastics were in
| the food before it was packaged.
| kritr wrote:
| A friend of mine built an alternative UI for this, that may be
| more digestible if you're trying to lookup individual items.
|
| http://plastic.food/
| zkmon wrote:
| What are we complaining about? Is it about the industrialization,
| economy and jobs that produced plastics? How far do we want to go
| back? Industries came out of scientific advances and business,
| which came from social dynamics and foundational academics such
| as mathematics and logic, which in turn were a result of leisure
| time due to civilizations, settlements, more food availability,
| farming, tools etc. All this was inevitable and incremental.
| Nothing happened overnight. We didn't cause it. And we won't be
| doing anything to stop it.
|
| There is a story in Hindu mythology about churning of the milk
| ocean, by gods and demons in cooperation, using a mountain as the
| churning rod, with an objective of extracting the nectar of
| immortality. After a great amount of churning, a great poison
| comes out which must be consumed, otherwise it ends the universe.
| Lord Shiva consumes it, but keeps it in his throat, to save
| himself and the universe. When the Nectar finally comes out,
| somehow gods trick the demons, to keep the nectar to themselves.
|
| Sometimes it occurs to me that this story foretold the extraction
| of oil from ocean deeps, giving the luxuries to the developed
| world and pollution to the third world.
| kerakaali wrote:
| Read through their "industry advice" section and thought this
| interesting:
|
| > If you chop something on a plastic cutting board (because wood
| cutting boards are outlawed in commercial kitchens, apparently),
| test before and after chopping.
|
| Who banned wood cutting boards from kitchens and for what
| purpose? I did some digging and some sources cite that neither
| FDA nor USDA strictly ban wood cutting boards, but individual
| state health departments are often strict on commercial kitchens
| that use wood instruments. I get concerns of wood being porous
| and all, but with the alternative being I have to ingest shavings
| from the plastic cutting board with every meal... Maybe it's time
| for a paradigm shift.
| lacoolj wrote:
| dont want to use this data for anything solid other than ... i
| will never visit the bay area
| Liwink wrote:
| Can anyone help test the plastic level of Coke? I wonder whether
| plastic or sugar would kill me first.
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