I recently threw away my trusty black plastic spatula after a claimed that such utensils may contain dangerous levels of flame-retardant chemicals. It turns out the researchers had a decimal point, and the concentration of chemicals wasn’t nearly as close to safety limits as was originally stated.
Regardless, the work still found some level of fire retardants in 85 per cent of 203 common household items. But how risky is this, if at all, to our health?
Despite the error, the finding was concerning for two reasons. First, flame retardants, particularly ones containing bromine, are associated with health issues, and persist and accumulate in animals and the environment.
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The second reason: these compounds aren’t put in household utensils deliberately. They were originally added to black plastics for electronic products; they reduce electronics’ chances of overheating, which can cause fires. When these goods are recycled, the compounds get incorporated into new products.
Unwanted chemicals can also sneak in if heating during the recycling process creates new chemicals or if they leach into plastic before it is recycled, according to a 2023 from Greenpeace.
“You don’t know what people are doing with plastic at home,” says at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “I might put gasoline in a bottle and keep it in a garage, but later throw the container in a recycling bin. Plastics are hydrophobic so chemicals that aren’t very water-soluble will be absorbed into them.”
Carney Almroth and her colleagues in 2023 showed that contamination of recycled plastics was a widespread problem. They found hundreds of pollutants, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals, collected in 13 countries.
Whether people should worry is a harder question to answer. Yes, studies have linked brominated flame retardants to certain conditions, including Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ , and to , which releases hormones into the body. But we don’t have good-quality evidence that general exposure to these retardants causes problems.
A further issue is the thousands of chemicals in plastics that could to human health, but which are often poorly studied. “Only about 1 per cent of the chemicals in plastics are globally regulated, so we don’t know if people are exposed to levels that are higher than safety levels,” says Carney Almroth.
Yet, a recent analysis of 1700 previously published studies, covering about a third of the world’s population, linked estimated higher levels of chemicals from plastic found in urine and blood samples to millions of cases of heart disease and thousands of strokes.
Black plastic utensils are often highlighted because there is evidence that they might contain and flame retardants, but also because of how they are used. “There are certain conditions that would increase chemicals leaching out of plastic into foodstuffs,” says Carney Almroth. “Heating is one of them, contact with fats is another.”
This leaching risk is, again, because the chemicals aren’t very water-soluble; as well as being more likely to jump from water into plastic, they are likelier to leach out into oils and other fats than into water, says Carney Almroth. Low pH levels can also cause this leaching, meaning that acidic foods such as tomatoes could also increase exposure risk, she says.
But the distinction between exposure risk and health risk is an important one, says at the University of Birmingham, UK, even if you are using a utensil with higher levels of contaminants. “Just because you’re exposed to something doesn’t mean it’s going cause you problems,” he says. “Everybody is exposed to these chemicals and this is just one of the ways.”
Harrad’s work has revealed that flame retardants can also be found in the UK, which concerns him because children often put such toys in their mouths.
However, chemicals aren’t necessarily in products forever; they can evaporate or be lost via abrasion, so older toys made from recycled plastics might have fewer hazardous chemicals than newer ones, says Harrad.
Concerns about using recycled plastic in textiles are probably less worrying, despite the direct contact they have with your skin, because they are less likely to be made from electronic waste, says Carney Almroth.
As to whether we should be avoiding recycled plastics, the jury is out. “In food-contact material, yes I would,” says Carney Almroth. “In other products, maybe the concern is not as high because the exposure wouldn’t be as high.
But Harrad takes a less wary approach. “Clearly, the fact that we’re not all dropping dead like flies suggests that it’s not going to be the end of civilisation as we know [it],” he says. “I wouldn’t at this point be advising people to steer clear of particular plastics, but I would be raising awareness because people are, I think, blissfully ignorant of just how many chemicals we [are] all exposed to.”
Recycling plastics must continue for the sake of the planet, he says, but it would be wise to exclude contaminated plastics from the process: “You don’t just recycle the plastic; you recycle everything that goes with it as well.”
