Viral study on black kitchen utensils had glaring error, researchers issue correction
(NEXSTAR) – If you were caught up in last month's panic over black kitchen cooking utensils, you now have a reason to breathe easier. The concern over the common kitchen tools appears to have been overblown, all because of a mistake in the scientific study.
The study, published last month in the journal Chemosphere, tested 203 household products made of black plastic. The researchers found 85% of them contained high concentrations of flame retardant.
The findings went viral, spreading concern that people cooking with black plastic utensils were inadvertently contaminating their food with cancer-causing chemicals. But how much of those chemicals are making their way into our food (and therefore our bodies) may be much smaller than originally thought.
The study's authors have issued a correction, saying a typo led them to overstate the threat level posed by the flame retardant.
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, told the National Post he noticed the error. He was taking a close look at the math when he spotted an extra zero.
The study estimated the black kitchen utensils could cause a median intake of 34,700 nanograms per day of the chemical compound in question. That's scarily close to the suggested safe limit for a 130-pound adult, which they wrote as 42,000 nanograms per day.
The problem? The Environmental Protection Agency's suggested exposure limit for an adult of that size isn't 42,000 nanograms per day. It's 420,000 nanograms per day.
An intake of 34,700 nanograms would therefore be less than one-tenth of the exposure limit set by the EPA.
While Megan Liu, the study's co-author, acknowledged the error, she said it shouldn't take away from the study's message. "There’s really no safe level of exposure to these harmful toxic flame retardants," she told the Washington Post.
How does any amount of flame retardant end up in our kitchen tools? Its source is often recycled e-waste.
TVs and computers are treated with flame retardant so they don’t cause a house fire, the Atlantic reports, but the problem arises when the e-waste is later used to make new household items that don’t need and shouldn’t have flame retardant.
Not every single piece of black plastic is contaminated, biochemist Andrew Turner told the Atlantic, but average people have no way to tell which of their utensils, takeout containers or children’s toys are toxic and which aren’t.
“It’s just a minefield, really,” he said.
Those concerned about exposure to the chemicals can swap their plastic spatulas with silicone, metal or wooden options.