Tips To Avoid Toxicity in Black Plastic Kitchen Utensils & Food Containers
Nov 20, 2024by Sophia Ruan Gushée
Have you read the recent headlines about black plastics? There are so many that I'll share a few since the headlines are informative:
- "Why you should get rid of your black plastic spatula immediately: Black plastic household items like kitchen utensils and takeout containers may contain toxic flame retardants." Kristin Toussaint, November 1, 2024. Fast Company
- "Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula It’s probably leaching chemicals into your cooking oil." Zoë Schlanger, October 30, 2024, The Atlantic
- "Black-colored plastic used for kitchen utensils and toys linked to banned toxic flame retardants." Sandee LaMotte, Updated 8:34 AM EDT, Tue October 1, 2024, CNN
- "Your cool black kitchenware could be slowly poisoning you, study says. Here’s what to do." Karen Garcia
This article teaches you what you should know about toxic chemicals in black plastic kitchen utensils and food containers, health risks of black plastic containers and utensils, substitutes for toxic kitchen utensils, and how to identify chemical-free food containers.
Why are black plastics particularly toxic?
Black plastics are often made from recycled plastics. Too often, in prior lives, they were computers and televisions.
Since chemical flame retardants are often added to electronics to help deter ignition or fires, black plastics are more likely to have relatively high levels of toxic chemicals. In addition to toxic chemical flame retardants, black plastics have been found to contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals (like bisphenols and phthalates), heavy metals (like cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, and mercury), and carbon black.
What are health risks from black plastics?
Chemical flame retardants, bisphenols, phthalates, and heavy metals are categories of chemicals. For example:
- dozens of phthalates have been synthesized
- the Swedish Chemicals Agency KEMI has identified more than 200 substances with a chemical structure similar to bisphenol A
- there are hundreds of different flame retardants
Understanding the health risks from specific chemicals, like BPA, for example, can take hundreds of studies. When I published A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide To Reducing Our Toxic Exposures in 2015, there were over 800 studies on how BPA may effect human health.
Remember, however, that there are more than 200 chemically similar substitutes to BPA. Some health risks identified with these chemicals include carcinogenicity, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicity.
Essentially soot from the incomplete combustion of petroleum products, carbon black is considered possibly carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). While health risks from black carbon in black plastic kitchen utensils or black plastic food containers has not been well studied, the US EPA has reported on cardiovascular, respiratory, and mortality risks from inhaling black carbon particulates. A fine black powder, carbon black (or black carbon) is often used in black plastics for a variety of purposes—like for its color, to deter deterioration from sunlight, and sometimes to enhance electrical connectivity.
Given the toxicity of black plastic, are black plastic food containers or black plastic kitchen utensils harmful to us? As you can gather from the above, black plastic food containers and black plastic utensils can be highly risky to our health!
Health risks of black plastic containers
Plastics, in general, can be made from an infinite variety of chemical recipes. Regarding health risks from toxic chemicals often found in plastic, the most documented ones are endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic containers, or phthalates in food containers. These chemicals can leach into food, and participate in our biology.
We know that heat (like from the microwave or dishwasher) can facilitate leaching of toxic chemicals as can scratches, sunlight, and normal wear and tear of the plastic. Some chemicals love fat, so the longer black plastic is in contact with fatty foods, the higher the concentration of toxic chemicals in the food. Next time you notice black plastic containers, pay attention to what it's containing (is it fatty) and how hot the container is. Avoiding black plastic restaurant delivery containers can be impossible but you can persistently request restaurants to stop using black plastic containers. In the meantime, remove the food from the black plastic containers as soon as possible. I store our food in glass containers.
Less covered in media, but thoroughly documented, are chemical flame retardants in black plastics particularly for electronics and cable wires. Recently, media has been bringing attention to how they show up in many American households: black plastic utensils and black plastic food containers. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, "Adverse health effects may include endocrine and thyroid disruption, immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, cancer, and adverse effects on fetal and child development and neurobehavioral function."
How to identify safer alternatives for kitchen utensils and food containers
Fortunately, safer alternatives to black plastic kitchen utensils and chemical-free food containers exist! Ruan Living is here to simplify your non-toxic kitchenware options.
Safer alternatives to black plastic kitchen utensils
How to avoid toxic chemicals in kitchen utensils is simplified by choosing stainless steel or wood utensils. These are also eco-friendly kitchen utensils too.
Stainless steel
Most stainless steel kitchen utensils are made of 18/10 stainless steel. Occasionally, however, you’ll find 18/8 stainless steel, which is a lower quality. If you are sensitive to nickel, look for 18/0 stainless steel instead. Here's an 18/10 stainless steel set (Amazon affiliate link) to get you started.
Wood
Wood can be a great option for most kitchen utensils, but you’ll critically assess the wood. Is it solid wood? Choose solid wood to avoid kitchen utensils that have adhesives.
Was it treated? Treatments like food-grade mineral oil or beeswax are ideal.
If you're looking for a set, checkout this 100% teak wood utensils set (Amazon affiliate link).
Bamboo
A grass, bamboo is a great option for kitchen utensils but critically assess it as you would wood. Is it 100% bamboo so there are no adhesives? Was it treated? Better bamboo treatments include nontoxic waxes and food-grade mineral oils.
Chemical-free food containers
Choosing safe food storage containers is also simplified by using ones made of nontoxic glass or stainless steel. Here's a staple glass set of food containers (Amazon affiliate link) in my kitchen.
Environmental dangers of black plastic waste
Black plastics can't be recycled, and they'll continue to pollute for the rest of their existence. Which could be longer than my lifespan!
So encourage restaurants and other businesses to avoid purchasing black plastic food containers and black plastic utensils. They'll pollute our environment in their manufacturing, use, disposal, and while they biodegrade on our planet after too many years.
Conclusion
Be aware that toxic chemicals in black plastic kitchen utensils and food containers pose health risks including cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity, and neurotoxicity. Fortunately, choosing safe food storage containers and non-toxic kitchen utensils is simplified by looking for ones that are made of nontoxic glass, stainless steel, and pure wood. For researched and curated household products, visit Ruan Living's Amazon store. If you're interested in simplifying nontoxic living by editing your lifestyle of Household Repeat Offenders rather than reading product labels to avoid chemicals ingredient by ingredients, then checkout Ruan Living's 40-Day Home Detox. It'll inform your commonsense like this article began to do with black plastics. You can now just use your vision to avoid the host of toxicity in black plastics.
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