5 ms·
TLDR: DEHP disrupts testosterone leading to lower sperm quality. DEHP can be found in carpets, plastic toys for children, and dog toys. Humans are also expose
by OutsmartDan 7y ago
TLDR: DEHP disrupts testosterone leading to lower sperm quality.
DEHP can be found in carpets, plastic toys for children, and dog toys. Humans are also exposed by eating microwaved food stored in plastic containers.
Stay away from microwaved food. Keep dogs away from plastic toys.
- OrgNet 7y ago> Stay away from microwaved food. Stay away from food microwaved in plastic containers?
- robohoe 7y agoSo stay away from home cooked lunch brought to work?
- b_tterc_p 7y agoJust put it on a plate
- katbyte 7y agoUse something like glass lock and reheat without the lid?
- lijogdfljk 7y agoI switched away from plastic containers to glassware. They're reasonably cheap and I don't worry about microwaving plastic with my food anymore. Note that I still have a plastic top on the container but: A: You don't have to microwave with that top, you could use some other cover. B: I am less concerned (possibly incorrectly) with microwaving plastics if they're not in contact with my food. Can anyone comment on B? Is it safe to microwave plastics if they're not touching food?
- pkaye 7y ago> Can anyone comment on B? Is it safe to microwave plastics if they're not touching food? Depends how things leach out of the plastics. Is it outgassing?
- Scoundreller 7y agoYes, B makes sense. Contact will cause much more absorption. For the same reasons, heating soup will absorb a lot more than a salad without dressing. Glass also won’t absorb some of your foods. Happens a lot with tomato sauces and plastic. On the positive side, reused plastic is probably safer than fresh plastic, since more of the easily liberated fragments will have already broken free.
- ars 7y agoThere are plastics made without plasticizes. Polyethylene most commonly (what soda bottles are made of). Also polypropylene.
- logfromblammo 7y agoAmend that to stay away from plastics for food storage. Food microwaved in borosilicate glass food containers is unlikely to pick up plasticizers. The challenge increases when you realize that a lot of canned foods have a plastic coating inside, to protect the can metal from corrosion by the canning liquid, particularly when that liquid is acidic, as with tomatoes or carbonated beverages.
- sizzle 7y agoHow do you minimize exposure to nasty compounds in canned or packaged foods from typical convenient shopping stores like Costco, trader Joe's, etc other than growing everything yourself?
- logfromblammo 7y agoYes, an excellent question. I suppose you have to lobby your legislators to pass food safety laws that prohibit polymers and epoxies based on bisphenol-A to be in contact with foods or beverages, specifically, and generally any other substances proven to leach endocrine disruptors into food or beverage under typical handling and storage conditions. Some food and beverage companies have identified this as a problem and are attempting to fix it in their own supply, but the majority of canned foods still have BPA-epoxy can linings, and most foods with a cardboard outer packaging also have a plastic inner packaging. Then there are the foods directly packaged in plastic containers. PET (1), HDPE (2), LDPE (4), and PP (5) are probably safe over the timespan you will be using them, but PVC (3), PC (7), and PS (6) may leach plasticizers into your consumables that mimic or interfere with the natural signaling chemicals in your body. The recycling symbol is no guarantee. Organic chemistry can produce a lot of different chemicals in very common environmental conditions; that's why life is based on it in the first place. You can still do things to a "safe" plastic to produce unwanted reaction products. If you buy foods in glass, silicone (polysiloxane), or stainless steel, you're probably okay. Ceramics and stoneware might leach heavy metal ions, but you're probably safe from any unwanted organic molecules. Brands that find this to be important will probably advertise as "BPA-free". Just don't touch that receipt printed at the point-of-sale terminal. Brands that sell directly to consumers are more likely to go BPA-free than those who supply food-service companies like Sysco or Aramark. So buying from the grocery store is more predictable than eating at a contractor-run eatery. It's way too much cognitive overhead for a typical person, though. This is a job for a cartel enforcer. So either a privately-run food-safety testing union that controls an independent trademark, licensed to those who pass the tests--like UL is for electrified appliances--or the heavy hand of government.
- b_tterc_p 7y agoDoes it matter if something is in your carpet?
- Scoundreller 7y agoIf you’re bare-foot, you can absorb some hydrophobic substances through contact. Walking along carpet dusts up whatever is in the carpet with every step.
- abootstrapper 7y agoIf your baby is crawling on it.
- hammock 7y agoFor those unfamiliar, DEHP = phthalates.
- dictum 7y agoI'm particularly puzzled by why so many electric kettles are made of plastic. Unfortunately, the non-plastic one I bought two years ago has already died, so maybe there's something to the casing.
- maxerickson 7y agoCorrosion and scale. Plastic takes a long time to visibly degrade and is pretty smooth using cheap processes.
- terminalhealth 7y agoMost of these kinds of products are built to fail so that you'll pay for a new one soon.
- sizzle 7y agoI always wondered what crap chemicals is leeching into my coffee using my plastic electric kettle for my plastic aeropress or plastic Keurig machine using plastic disposable pods. Anyone have a safer method of brewing coffee? Like boil water in a glass Pyrex beaker and some sort of glass French press/glass aeropress?
- erichocean 7y agoI have a stainless steel french press. Love it, super simple to use and keep clean.
- ChoGGi 7y ago1/4 coffee grind to 3/4 cold water, stick it in the fridge for 24 hours. Dilute with 1/4 coffee to 3/4 boiling water (it will be less bitter than brewed coffee). Now you just need to find something to boil water that isn't made of plastic.
- sizzle 7y agoAwesome will try this out!
- 7y ago
- aflag 7y ago> Stay away from microwaved food. Keep dogs away from plastic toys Unless you're not a sperm producer, then you can eat all the plastic you want.
- e2le 7y agoHow does eating healthy food, exercise and not sitting on your ass all day compare to this? I suspect healthy food and exercise would provide significantly more benefit than stressing over your contact with plastics especially when most people don't eat very healthy and don't exercise much.
- jschwartzi 7y agoConsidering one of the chemicals is identified as an endocrine disruptor the chemicals may have a significant impact whether or not you are otherwise healthy.
- rubicon33 7y agoGood luck avoiding it. Even IF you don't prepare your own food with plastics there's a very good chance that the food you're eating came into contact with plasticizers during its cultivation, preparation, or packaging process. There was a woman a while back to went to extreme measures to avoid plastics. After 1 year of doing everything she could to avoid plastics, they STILL found plasticizers in her blood. Wish I could find the article...
- smallnamespace 7y agoMany of these compounds are fat soluble and bioaccumulate inside the body's fat reserves, so even after terminating exposure you will slowly leach it out of reserves into the bloodstream and urine.
- sizzle 7y agoYup conveyor belts in food processing factories have paper lining containing phthalates and other nasty compounds that the food is moved around on throughout the food processing machines. This stuff is not even on the radar of most people, I only found out from reading a book on how processed food is made.
- jammygit 7y ago> There was a decline in motility by 30 per cent [in dogs], and what's interesting is it parallels similar observations carried out on human sperm 30 percent is a lot for such low levels of the chemicals.
- Knufen 7y agoMany endocrine disruptors have U shaped 'potency' curves. In practice this means that in very small amounts the body treats it as a hormone signal, in medium amounts there is almost no response, and in high amounts it will be toxic. This U shaped curve is what makes the small amounts that leech from everywhere very serious. The bodily response is much more complex than "more is worse"
- floatingatoll 7y agoIn parallel to these (ineffective) steps, 1) Write your politicians about plastic overuse; 2) Vote based on whether they reply and how; 3) Tell your friends how you will vote and why Without some form of action in support of changing our approach to plastics, you'll continue being exposed to plastics and any potential effects thereof, no matter what steps you try to take to avoid them personally.
- kaitai 7y agoYep. Microplastics are now being found even in well water, in low but increasing amounts. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718331425 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...
- magduf 7y ago>Keep dogs away from plastic toys. Why? If your dog is a pet, it should be neutered. Sperm quality shouldn't be an issue.