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Vacation Safety: Microwaving plastic plates and spoons may release melamine and formaldehyde into your food

By Steve Lombardi

Many of us are unaware that those plastic spoons and plates we take on vacation contain melamine. The manufacturer is supposed to warn the user by proper labeling but many are not doing so.

The World Health Organization has studied and advised about the world wide melamine contamination problem.

'Melamine is not metabolized and is rapidly eliminated in the urine with a half life in plasma of around 3 hours (OECD 1998). The compound has a low acute toxicity, with an oral LD50 in the rat of 3161 mg/kg body weight (OECD 1998).'

Europeans have set limits on how much melamine may 'migrate' during cooking. Using a microwave to heat food sitting on plastic plates or having a plastic utensil can be the cause of kidney stones and other more serious problems.

'The European Commission directive 2002/72/EC restricts formaldehyde by a specific migration limit of 15 milligrams per kilogram, or 2.5 milligrams per square decimeter, while melamine is 30 milligrams per kilogram or 5 milligrams per square decimeter. '

A Danish test produced similar results.

'Migration of one or both formaldehyde and/or melamine monomers was found in seven of ten tested melamine samples bought on the Danish market. The samples were a bowl, a jug, a mug, a ladle, and different cups and plates.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2A1XP03AF0

Melamine is used in the manufacturing process to make many of the products we use today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFmaZEEyFg

One has to wonder if our fast paced lifestyles aren't killing us in more ways than we can possibly know. Plastics, microwaves, diet pills, prescriptions for every perceived ill and inconvenience, sitting in front of the television rather than going out for a walk, sitting in front of a computer to blog ... Huh? Gotta run! Bye!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).