Beatrice GombergCreator · founder of Tabor Place
Replace them
What it rests onThe 2024 Chemosphere and Toxic-Free Future product testing.
Source: taborplace.co ↗
Crossfire
Should I throw out my black plastic kitchen utensils?
What the experts say
Beatrice GombergCreator · founder of Tabor Place
Joe SchwarczPhD · chemist, director of the McGill Office for Science and Society
Keep them
What it rests onThe risk assessment behind the story multiplied 7,000 by 60 and got 42,000 instead of 420,000, so corrected exposure is roughly a tenth of the reference dose, and measured transfer during normal use is minimal.
Source: mcgill.ca ↗
Overview
Both are talking about general adult household use. Neither addresses children, and neither addresses occupational exposure in plastics recycling, where the contamination pathway is not in dispute.
Where they agree
Both accept that black plastic defeats infrared sorting, that recycled electronics feedstock does carry flame retardants, and that the contamination is real. The disagreement is entirely about the dose reaching a person and what follows from it.
What would settle it
Biomonitoring in regular users of black plastic kitchenware. Both positions currently rest on modelled exposure, not on measurement in people.
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