21 ms·
Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods
- wumeow 2y agoOh god, the almond milk. I guess that’s that habit kicked.
- kennyloginz 2y agoI guess I will have to kick the human breast milk, my mom will be happy.
- hombre_fatal 2y agoIt's interesting that everyone is talking about boba tea instead of things they regularly consume like milk and beef, also featured in dedication sections of TFA. Either because they didn't scroll past the first chart or it's more convenient to focus on a food item they don't eat daily. Edit: I was randomly on NewRepublic's website and saw this relevant article about how farmers using 'biosolids' (sewage) on their land multiplied the PFAS in their livestock/dairy/water: https://newrepublic.com/article/187106/pfas-milk-maine-texas-biosolids-sewage https://newrepublic.com/article/187106/pfas-milk-maine-texas... ("One State’s War on Forever Chemicals in Milk")
- postscapes1 2y agoI wish they would have been more concentrated with their approach versus this spray and pray route (ie test chick-fil-a from different parts of the country and done it 1000 times so customers could actually impact a change to the biggest offenders). Would happily pay to crowdsource a much bigger project here.
- asadm 2y agoso do we yet have baby food companies that have no plastics? I would buy those asap.
- tlhighbaugh 2y agoWell if <10nm pieces of plastic are swirling around Mount Everest in the "Death Zone", you bet that they are swirling around on your food down here where we have had an abandoned mercury mine leeching into the South Bay for almost 2 centuries, an island next to SF that in the Cold War they Navy would paint ships with radioactive paint to see if they could spray it off with the run-off going into the bay and parts of West Oakland still you can get lead poisoning just being outside in 80 years after the shipyards closed at the end of the war. I love the Bay Area, native to the East Bay and no matter how hard I try to escape, I always find myself crawling right back to San Francisco's sweet embrace, but in case it isn't clear to the people just arriving and driving the cost up higher than London, Paris or Berlin, its never been anything less than an excellent example of the horrible things people will do to each other and the planet to satisfy their impulse for either money or power. Superfund sites abound in the six counties around the bay, plastic in your food is probably the least of your actual worries. > Mattie came from far away, from New Orleans into the East Bay. He said, 'this is a Mecca!' I said, 'This ain't no Mecca, man. This place is fucked!' Six months go by, he has no home, he has no food, he's all alone. Mattie said, 'fool me once, shame on you.' Didn't fool him twice, he moved back to New Orleans! - "A Journey to the End of the East Bay", Rancid
- sizzle 2y agoThis research by these non academic background folks is simply astounding and exceptional. How did they get the funding to run $500k of independent lab testing? Can we donate to the cause? This stuff is on my mind all the time eating out or from plastic-impregnated cardboard food packaging lining, etc. I’m worried about reproductive impact on future generations and overall personal health, etc.
- osanseviero 2y agoNat Friedman leads the project. He was GitHub's CEO, among many other things. He funds many interesting ambitious projects, such as the Vesuvius Challenge (https://scrollprize.org/ https://scrollprize.org/)
- sizzle 2y agoReally cool thanks for pointing me in the right direction
- falafels 2y agoSo, how about a startup for baby food / prenatals that shows transparent, third party testing for plastic compounds and heavy metals? I'm serious, would love to do this.
- bitmasher9 2y agoI love this idea. I hope to see this type of testing for everyday food as well. Here are some hurtles you might run across * Can you source low plastic baby food, or low plastic food to process into baby food? Seems like large quantities of the food supply are contaminated. * How can you comparatively advertise your low test results compared to the competition without being the victim of lawsuits? Lawsuits from established companies feels inevitable, but being involved in a lawsuit can harm funding rounds for startups, even if it’s baseless. * Would brick & motor stores want to deal with you if you are essentially calling the rest of their products poison? * Will you need special tools for processing the food that introduces minimal plastics?
- glial 2y agoFor your third question -- there are already lots of products on the market in certain stores (Costco, Whole Foods, co-ops) that have third party testing or claims about purity.
- chaostheory 2y agoYet more evidence that the Age Depopulation Bomb’s main root causes is plastic endocrine disruptors
- Funes- 2y agoThis should be run globally. Or as globally as it could be run.
- nextworddev 2y agoWelp not drinking boba again
- anonu 2y agoI wonder if the Starbucks and blue bottle coffee results are due to the plastic in the throwaway cups. The Nestle instant coffee (which comes in a glass jar) had much lower scores in comparison.
- alfor 2y ago32,571.4% ? 320X the limit? Why do we continue down that path, are we that stupid collectively? We know the fertility of men is falling year after year, we know this, yet things go on as if it's not important. We could calmly debate the amount on the limit, but at this point we know the job we have to do.
- ThinkBeat 2y agoI guess at some point will know how dangerous to people it is, and how risky it is compared to things that we really know are really bad, but that we are still eating. (for one reason or another). If it turns out that it is a serious health threat, then pretty much anyone alive today is f*ked. and given the build up of it, will be for quite a while. But we also have climate change, AI apocalypse, global thermonuclear war, mcDonalds, and all other things at the same time. And we wont know if whatever it is replaced with, if will be replaced will turn out any better for humanity in the long term.
- rtpg 2y agoThe boba tea result alone makes me want to never drink that again. Was a fun little treat while it lasted…
- jeffbee 2y agoWhy did you ever drink it in the first place? A boba is 500g of diabetes packaged in 100g of trash. It's the worst idea ever.
- cactusplant7374 2y agoBoba can be part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoSo can smoking
- cactusplant7374 2y agoNo it can't. Type 2 diabetes is mostly genetic. I can eat as much Boba as I want and not get diabetes.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoSource on type 2 being mostly genetic? All I've found is there is some link but not conclusive. Also T2 is on the rise in young people. Have their genetics changed dramatically in the past few decades? Or has food? https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data-research/research/young-people-diabetes-on-rise.html https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data-research/research/young-pe...
- cogman10 2y agoSo interestingly it could be the two working together [1] [2]. T2 may be on the rise partially to epigenetic changes. [1] https://www.thediabetescouncil.com/link-epigenetics-type-2-diabetes/ https://www.thediabetescouncil.com/link-epigenetics-type-2-d... [2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10258626/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10258626/
- mobileexpert 2y agoThe Boba Guys result is a real kick in the nuts. Using a shitty paperish straw for the environment but the core product being so high in these tests.
- dgfitz 2y agoThink of the turtle.
- klabb3 2y agoPlastic straws are natural predators. Removing them from the food chain will simply cause overpopulation in turtles.
- gertlex 2y ago20x variation in their measurements of "Black Tea Pearls" (and 8x or so in the tea juice). Would have liked to see more reflection on that. (I feel like I'm still seeing plastic straws for boba everywhere in San Jose; but I'm far from a frequent consumer)
- userbinator 2y agoThe "paper" straw, that's still coated in plastic and becomes unusably soggy long before the product is consumed.
- soperj 2y agoi mean you're lucky if it's just coated in plastic, most are PFAS.
- omolobo 2y ago[dead]
- julianeon 2y agoIf you want one takeaway, it's: rethink your boba consumption.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- idunnoman1222 2y ago[flagged]
- saagarjha 2y agoMight not be particularly expedient to be.
- doug_durham 2y agoThe sugar content of boba tea is much more relevant than trace levels of BPA. You will have disastrous health effects from sugar, versus potential effects from BPA.
- sebmellen 2y ago> At least one of the 18 chemicals was found in every baby food, prenatal supplement, human breast milk, yogurt, and ice cream product that we tested, to name only a few categories. Wow
- jacobn 2y agoGreat work, very interesting list! Ideally the "% Limit" column would: 1. Be right-aligned 2. Have consistent formatting (i.e. same number of digits after the dot) 3. A little bar underneath each number showing relative scale (i.e. top entry is full width, last entry is 216.7 / 32571.4 = 0.00665307601, though maybe on a log scale for confusion? ;)
- userbinator 2y ago[flagged]
- jeffbee 2y agoI don't see much that I recognize as "food" in the report, and in the database I see that actual foods — eggs, bananas, suchlike — are no-detect across the board. Conclusion: eat food, instead of whatever these things are.
- blargey 2y agoActual 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)
- jeffbee 2y agoThere'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.
- BadHumans 2y agoIt's skewed towards what a bunch of Bay area college students and their friends eat. Seems accurate to me.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- devindotcom 2y agoLooking 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 was the scariest one to me. Sure, you expect some but ... wildly unsafe levels?!
- falafels 2y ago> Fish are aggregators of this stuff so that's not surprising. I doubt the BPA in fish originates from the fish themselves. It's more likely from the can linings used to package the fish.
- SoftTalker 2y agoHave "unsafe levels" been established, or are we just assuming that any is bad? Edit: I see they appear to be using the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) intake limits for most of their tests.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoInitial data says they're at least bad for sea life. Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Stopping pollution is also much easier than cleaning up after the fact. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10151227/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10151227/
- thaumasiotes 2y ago> Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Having odd things in your lungs is bad. Having things bouncing around in your digestive tract means nothing. The whole point of the digestive tract is that you put untrusted materials into it.
- blindriver 2y agoWell fuck. How can I test for effects from endocrine-disrupting chemicals on my children? Are there blood tests that check for this?
- kuczmama 2y agoYou could get this plastic test: https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/products/microplastics-test https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com/products/microplastics-te.... I haven't tried it, but it's the only one I know of.
- hombre_fatal 2y agoI don’t know what that’s measuring but TFA is about plastic chemicals like BPA, not microplastics
- erur 2y agoGreat read and amazing initiative. Relevance of findings seems to 90% depend on whether you believe the EFSA BPA intake thresholds over the FDA. Love how transparent they’re about it instead of doing what most do. The world needs more of this.
- uncomplexity_ 2y agoso these are the ones in my balls (•ˋ _ ˊ•)
- DoingIsLearning 2y agoAm I interpreting this correctly that Brita actually works as a limiter for plasticizers in tap water? Specially since tap water plasticizer content can vary by a lot?
- Maxion 2y agoIf you are interested in water filters that filter out microplastics, look in to filters that have NSF ratings for it. Afaik only the berkefeld filters (NOT berkey) do. Also a lot of water filter companies are sketchy, and market their filters with terms like made from NSF rated components but do not have the actual full filter assemblies tested (red red red flag).
- roseway4 2y agoThe study makes clear the water findings are inconclusive.
- FriedPickles 2y agoOne 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?
- ghostly_s 2y agoI don't have any sources handy but I believe conventional wisdom is that plastic decomposition accelerates with age due to the cumulative effect of UV exposure.
- cogman10 2y agoI'd expect almost the opposite. Plastics left in the sun tend to turn brittle, I'd expect that to be a big contributor to microplastics generally in the environment as those plastics break down. But I agree, would be interesting to know. I've been switching my stuff over to glass when possible. But, unfortunately unless I become a full-time farmer there's no escaping the fact that my food comes wrapped in plastic that's wrapped in plastic and further wrapped in more plastic. Single use plastics for food should be heavily restricted.
- SerCe 2y agoNot 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-textiles-towards-a https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-te...
- SerCe 2y agoAt 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-refer-to-316667 https://uk.help.huskee.co/en-US/what-does-end-of-life-cups-r...
- SerCe 2y agoI wish similar testing were available in Australia, I'd pay for a subscription to have access to high-quality independent testing of the common foods that are available in the shops. I wonder if enough people care for this to be a viable business model.
- hombre_fatal 2y agoI'd also like this. I just want a ballpark on the orders of magnitude between alternatives so I can make simple swaps. The most popular three brands of each food category (canned black beans, soy milk, hummus, etc.) would be a nice start. On the other hand, it also seems like the wrong fixation for most people. Most people should probably be making swaps away from things like junk food and saturated fat before they invest energy in minmaxing the nanograms of pfas in their butter. It would suck if it introduced more chaos and confusion into health/food discourse.
- dalanmiller 2y agoWould be nice to put through all the terrible plastic-wrapped produce you find at Coles and Woolies.
- sss111 2y ago+1 for US & India. I put in a quote request with the lab OP used, the economics might work out but we'd run into the problem of people sharing the insights/outliers on social media? Also side note, this test seems exorbitantly expensive in India. $1100 for 1 kit! https://www.amazon.in/Phthalates-Test-Bus-Days-Schneider/dp/B077G6GWC6 https://www.amazon.in/Phthalates-Test-Bus-Days-Schneider/dp/...
- throwawayvegan 2y ago[dead]
- energy123 2y agoCan 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.
- oblio 2y agoIt's such a sad realization when you notice that most of the cost decreases for common products have happened through plasticizing everything. It's basically impossible to find cheap natural products for cleaning consumables, for example, and it's really hard to find trustworthy global brands. Plastic is entering absolutely every aspect of our lives and I really fear it's a "lead in gasoline" and "asbestos" moment for our generation :-( and it's going to be much harder to undo that either of those.
- pnw 2y agoOf course my favorite blueberry RXBAR is full of bad things.
- hnburnsy 2y agoDon't miss the DIY... https://www.plasticlist.org/diy https://www.plasticlist.org/diy
- conorh 2y agoMy wife is a doctor dealing with (part of) the endocrine system and for years she has had us avoiding heating anything up in a plastic container and avoiding food/liquids+plastic where we can. She believes that these endocrine disruptors are very likely much worse for us than we currently realize, and that the research is eventually going to show that.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Maxion 2y agoMy wife is a researcher that has looked in to human breast milk, and blood metabolites. She has colleagues who have looked in to similar things. They all avoid plastics as much as possible.
- asdff 2y agoI think when people act like this they get a little irrational even if they have credentials and education. For example, the concern is limiting plastic intake. the solution is to limit it at home apparently, because this is within our realm of control. It's a fallacy though. However, if this was approached scientifically, we might ask ourselves to identify where these plastics are most likely to come from when we get in contact from them. Are these few levers in our control really having any effect compared to the levers we have no control over that probably also contribute significant plastic in our lives? That is the first question to be asked before any action IMO. It is humbling I am sure to know of a problem but also subconsciously at least know there isn't anything you can do about it. Like most other pollution I guess; you have to breathe that air at the end of the day. And your only salve is the scientific community gathering evidence of these effects so that regulation might be written to target them specifically. Individually, we are powerless.
- metadat 2y agoWhy does she believe this? What data is it based on? (I also avoid these things but only because I feel paranoid about it.)
- 2y ago
- wintercarver 2y agoBeing lazy here, but would love to know more about how testing for all of these plastics chemicals that are omnipresent is done in a way that ensures the measurement process or tools themselves do not contribute trace chemicals (e.g. lab tech wears latex gloves while handling the sample, whoops, etc).
- thomascountz 2y agoThey go into significant detail about their sample handling as well as documenting potential sources of contamination here: https://www.plasticlist.org/methodology https://www.plasticlist.org/methodology
- wintercarver 2y agoNice and thank you! Will now go head my head in shame for not having bothered to click the “menu” icon on the main report :facepalm:
- nozzlegear 2y ago> Additionally, acid in foods may break down the phthalate diesters we measured into monoesters, which our testing didn't detect. This means actual phthalate levels could be higher than reported. Just curious, is it possible for the acid to break them down completely? Like, poof, no more harmful plastic monoester, it's now just plastic-adjacent goop?
- malfist 2y agoMore likely it didn't break down the phthalate itself but interfered with the monomer their test method created and measured
- rsync 2y agoI am, in a different life, a consumer of compost and I have started looking very carefully at the compost products for sale in the bay area. On the urban consumer side of things I see compost collection bins which cannot possibly be decontaminated of all manner of plastic pieces which will, inevitably, be ground up into the compost product. On the rural side of things I see miles of plastic baling twine and weedeater string - and other plastic meshes and grid - used throughout pastures year after year and then collected back up again with loads of hay and manure which also end up in the compost stream. These truckloads of soil/compost/fill have to be significantly contaminated and the rural end users are pouring them right back on their fields.
- modeless 2y agoIt's funny how the same people that dump whatever trash they feel like into the compost bins because it's convenient turn around and say "Wow, free compost! Let me spread that all over my garden!" Like, didn't I just see you yesterday putting a compostable takeout container into the bin with ketchup packets still inside? You think the municipal composting fairy just magics that stuff away?
- blondie9x 2y agoMicroplastics impact endocrine hormones and potentially are carcinogenic. Lifespan growth has stagnated although technology has improved. Quality of life has declined as number of temperate days with good air quality declines with climate change.
- solardev 2y agoI know that some wastewater treatment plants will sell biosolid sludge (the filtered and partially treated solid output of the treatment process). Do you know what, if anything, that does to the plastics? I think it's mostly mechanical settling and then sitting in piles on the ground. Not sure if that UV exposure from the sun is enough to meaningfully degrade the plastic into something else.
- kylebenzle 2y agoIn Columbus we have, "The Compost Exchange" and as a small farmer I get their compost delivered. It is now so full of plastic contamination it's just not worth it anymore. Its disgusting what I find in there, countless grocery bags, Keurig cups, people don't care and I don't save enough money to be worth picking out plastic.
- tadzikpk 2y agoThis is so informative, thank you. I always got my kids baby food in glass, thinking it would reduce their microplastics exposure as well as reducing plastic waste. Turns out only one of those was true :(
- npunt 2y agoIt may still be true. Handling plastic over time (e.g. lots of squeezing and dropping) could plausibly cause an increase of plastic leakage over time.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoYou might try getting a cloth diaper service as well. All those plastics, plasticizers, and VOCs can leach into skin.
- dukeofdoom 2y agoDid they test Wheat. I'm convinced something is up with the Wheat here. I've not seen Europeans gain anywhere near as much weight from eating bread as people do here. From my experience visiting Paris, croissants, butter and pastries pretty common on the menu. But still people are still pretty skinny in comparison. And like Pasta in Italy is a staple. Yet still, lower BMI there.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- knowaveragejoe 2y agoIt probably has as much to do with their portion sizes as it does the actual wheat. Not to mention wildly different activity levels(people actually walk places far more often in the EU than they do in the US)
- kridsdale1 2y agoAmerican bakers use more sugar.
- attentive 2y agoI think EU (at least some countries) bans glyphosate and tightly regulate other pesticide and herbicide usage on their wheat.
- refurb 2y agoNothing special about the wheat, it's the amount Americans are eating that is the problem. When I lived in Asia I was amazed how skinny everyone was! Most people ate street vendor food which was mostly carbs and very little vegetables or protein. The answer was...portion sizes! Even manual labor workers ate a lunch that was maybe 500 kcal. Total daily caloric intake rarely went over 2,000. While Americans average 3,600.
- kristofferR 2y agoReally interesting how microwaving food containers didn't do anything, in fact results usually were lower before microwaving than after. (search "microwave)
- block_dagger 2y agoI've been using a reverse osmosis water filter at home to reduce microplastics and other contaminants from my drinking and cooking water for the past few years. I am using the #1 recommended product on Buyer's Guide[1] for others who are interested. [1] https://buyersguide.org/countertop-reverse-osmosis-system/t/best https://buyersguide.org/countertop-reverse-osmosis-system/t/...
- InMice 2y agoOf course, a reverse osmosis filter system made of...Plastic.
- aardvarkr 2y agoHonestly what else are you going to make it out of? Metal? What about rust? Horrible idea to make it out of metal.
- fooblaster 2y agoI don't want to be a downer, but given the pervasive amount of plastics in food, it seems essentially impossible to have a meaningful impact on overall plastic consumption for anyone who depends on a supermarket/restaurants for sustenance.
- block_dagger 2y agoI'm also vegan and buy mostly organic products and cook at home. I get your point, though. There's only so much we can do. The tofu I eat daily comes in plastic containers, unfortunately.
- hindsightbias 2y agoI owe this entire team a beer - but I don’t see Russian River or Lagunitas on the list. Anyway, let me know and I can meet you at Toronado.
- jart 2y agoIt's hilarious how McDonalds ends up being the safest premade meals you can get (outside a big tech company cafeteria) at least from a scary plastic chemical standpoint. They actually have the resources and a big enough PR problem to spend the money to send their stuff to labs and get it tested. Everyone else solves the PR problem by just labeling their food organic and healthy instead. https://justine.lol/tmp/healthy.jpg https://justine.lol/tmp/healthy.jpg This is all of course assuming no one discovers anything horrible about DEHT in the future, which is the new chemical they're leaning into. I get maybe 10% as many Google Scholar hits on DEHT compared to its terrifying well-studied cousin DEHP.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- OutOfHere 2y agoMcD tested high for phthalates, phthalate substitutes, and even sometimes for bisphenols.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- refurb 2y agoIt is ironic. Amazing how if you don't go looking for it, there is no bad news! I see the same in people who visit developing countries and talk about how "fresh and organic" the food is. They comment "you don't read about the food safety issues like you do in developed countries". Yeah, of course you don't, the developing countries don't test!
- sizzle 2y agoNot gonna lie, the meat I had in some European countries without preservatives and processing went through me so cleanly and easy I’m convinced we are the ones dropping the ball in this whole discussion somehow.
- tossandthrow 2y ago
- yowayb 2y agoAre there prospective studies on effects? Afaik it's just in vitro, and I wonder if our bodies have a natural mitigation mechanism that would allow up to a certain amount without harm. I'm just afraid of what I see as a trend to attribute small factors to big things that are caused by societal problems, etc.
- benatkin 2y agoIndeed. It reminds me of NNT's anti-GMO advocacy.
- Imnimo 2y agoSo basically the headline is that Europe and US have a very different limit for BPA, most US food is also under the European limit, but there are a handful of items that are only under the US limit but not under the much lower European limit?
- treme 2y agobasically you should avoid all wild caught sea food. has roughly 50x such contaminants vs land based animal protein
- gregwebs 2y agoPaint is a huge source of microplastics that many are unaware of [1]. But also consider how you are wearing clothing made with plastic and the fact that it’s not hard to find 100% cotton shirts. Start figuring out how to have less plastic in your life. It’s not hard if you can be content to do it gradually. [1] https://www.e-a.earth/plastic-paints-the-environment/ https://www.e-a.earth/plastic-paints-the-environment/
- praveen9920 2y agoTrue. Also, no one is talking about tyres. They shed lot of micro plastics in their life time
- highcountess 2y agoI don’t even know, but it would not surprise me if whatever they spray on cotton clothing to make it feel new, which washes out with the first wash, is also some endocrine disrupter. It is insane to me that we have allowed our psychotic cooperations and the psychotic narcissistic people who run and are part of them to totally poison our whole world and lives. This is not even a new thing. I know for a fact that Nestle experimented with including these types of liquid plastics into baby food, testing the maximum amount of liquid plastic that could be added to baby jar food because it would result in babies not being able to take up nourishment, which would in turn cause parents to have to feed more and buy more. I don’t know to what level that was implemented, but I know of a scientist that was involved and asked to do thinks he could not reconcile with goods conscience, so he resigned. I’m sure they found someone else somewhere with less reservations of morals. Most likely most industrial baby food has immense amounts of liquid plastics in it. No one that goes through the trouble of cooking their own baby food feeds their babies as much as when they feed jar food, that foes right through them.
- lazide 2y ago[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercerisation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercerisation], plus various lubricants most likely.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- benatkin 2y agoFor reference the guy funding this is the same person this letter was sent to: https://github.com/drop-ice/dear-github-2.0 https://github.com/drop-ice/dear-github-2.0
- czhu12 2y agoAbsolutely amazing work. I wonder what kind of funding / model could make something like this sustainable. Presumably, as manufacturing processes change, everything on this list has to be re-tested again? The current website has no way of crowd sourcing + verifying data, but that would maybe be a nice addition
- wcfrobert 2y agoCrazy excerpt from the report: > "On BPA in particular, just 10 years ago, the US EPA and the EU EFSA had the same limit. Then the EFSA lowered their limit several times, resulting in a 250,000x difference in the limits. But the EPA Iris site to this day says that, no, the limit they last revised in 1988 is still correct. This is an important difference if you want to interpret PlasticList results. Remember the Boba Guys tea that contains 1.2 years of safe BPA consumption according to the EFSA? According to the EPA, it’s well under the limit." How the heck can the limits established by the EPA and EFSA vary up to 250,000x ??? That's several orders of magnitudes... Really hoping this study blow up so more research gets funded. The testing is supposedly cheap and there's definitely enough public interest at this point.
- jart 2y ago[flagged]
- Etheryte 2y agoWhat government agencies think matters because they outline what's legal and what's not, and that in turn dictates what ends up in your food or not. If the government agencies are wrong, you can end up slowly being poisoned. A 250,000 times gap is the difference between one milligram and a quarter of a kilogram.
- jart 2y agoWhere do you think government policy comes from? If the people who are smart and wealthy enough to torch half a million dollars on original independent research care more about who's breaking the law rather than what's true, then you have a circular dependency that breaks your system. That's why the law is so crazy and nothing crazy should be taken seriously regardless of how officially important it is.
- lazide 2y agoHowever, not taking the law seriously also often results in jail time or serious consequences. Sometimes especially when the law doesn’t make sense.
- jancsika 2y ago> The lab was able to test 705 samples which came from 296 different food products Ok > Here's a complete list of all the presently-available food samples (excluding vintage foods) we tested that exceeded a published daily intake limit for any of the chemicals we tested: 41 samples in table > That said, with the 24 exceptions above, What, what? There are 41 exceptions in that table, and still more than 24 even if you deduplicate.
- shipilovya 2y agoThese 41 samples came from 24 unique products