The Black Plastic Spatula Debate
Cheap, ubiquitious and bad for you. Sunlight or eggs, anyone?
Remember, the sky is falling!
I’ve seen multiple articles about this now, all screaming the same thing: You MUST, ABSOLUTELY MUST, RIGHT NOW, TOSS THAT BLACK PLASTIC SPATULA BEFORE IT KILLS YOU.
You don’t believe me? Try putting “toss that black plastic spatula?” in a search engine and see how many articles appear. Apparently, they are made of some sort of recycled plastic that releases toxic chemicals when it gets hot. And, of course, the primary use of a spatula is in a hot pan to stir hot stuff on a hot stove.
So let’s all replace them with silicone tools. And in five years, prepare for the next headline, “Toss your silicone cooking tools—they are killing you.”
So, I wonder if this will be like “Don’t eat eggs—they are killing you.” People still believe this despite the fact that eggs are a fabulous source of nutrients and very good for pretty much anyone.
And how about this one, “Try to eliminate all fats/oils from your diet.” That one, of course, led to utterly tasteless and even higher-calorie, vigorously sugared foods like the infamous “Snackwells,” which may even still be sold, and all of which contributed to the ever-growing incidence of obesity.
How about, “Butter is terrible for you—substitute margarine for it: you’ll be far heathier.” That deeply misguided advice led to a host of diseases associated with the deleterious health effects of eating hydrogenated oils instead of butter.
Today, the advice is, “Never, ever let any sunshine hit any part of your skin. If you absolutely MUST go outside, make sure you slather yourself with sunscreen (which is full of ingredients that probably have bad, very bad, long-term effects on your health.) Not to mention that we now have a nation with too many suffering a severe Vitamin D deficiency, which we are told to make up for with massive doses of oral Vitamin D and which can lead to toxicity and does not have the same health effects on the body as just getting outside for a few minutes every day does. But, for heaven's sake, NEVER LET THE SUN EVEN HIT YOUR SKIN, OR YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY DIE OF METASTIC MELANOMA.
OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point. Remember, the sky is falling.
Everything is bad for someone!
Here’s the problem: Everything is bad for someone. Take the push for clean air. An absolute public good, right? Nope, not if you happen to own a company that can be far, far more profitable by spewing contaminants into the air than by having to purchase and install and maintain the equipment to remove those contaminants.
Same thing with clean water—yeah, nice for most of us but, hey, it cuts into corporate profits, so it hurts someone’s pocketbook. And think of how many medical and special educational professionals it would put out of work if we eliminated all lead from drinking water and ended up with so many more physically and mentally healthy children? That could lead to a real unemployment crisis.
You think we should eliminate those awful single-use plastic bags that are slowly poisoning our environment? Wait!!! Have pity on the manufacturers of them—you don’t want to cut into their livelihood or put their employees out of work, do you?
Oh well, my husband also read the black plastic spatula news and said, “OK, let’s toss them and replace them.”
So, these toxic cooking implements will head to the plastic bag that will head to the trash can to head to the rapidly filling landfills to add even more toxicity to the soil as they [maybe] break down in the next 2000 years or so.
We humans really are a mess. Even so, the sky really is not yet falling. I think
.Note: Image generated by ChatGPT
The one thing that every human being on the face of the Earth has in common with each other, everywhere, is that we all have micro plastics in our bloodstream. My husband recently after four years of work finally finished his “Storyworth book.” His answer to the question “what has changed the most over your lifetime?” was “ the ubiquitous presence of plastics everywhere.”