Study Finds Flame Retardants in Black Plastic Food Items, Toys

It’s easy to assume your cooking utensils and food containers are safe to touch actual food (that’s what they’re made for, after all). But new research suggests that may not be the case.

The study, published in the journal Chemosphere, detected high levels of toxic flame retardants in black-colored plastic, including kitchen utensils, food containers, toys, and trays used to hold grocery meat and produce.

The fire retardants detected included decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), which was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2021. DecaBDE is in a class of flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

Ultimately, the researchers discovered that decaBDE was detected in 70 percent of the samples, with levels up to 1,200 times higher than the acceptable limit set by the European Union of 10 parts per million.

The study has raised a lot of questions about the safety of these products, as well as how to lower your risk. Here’s what to know.

How do fire retardants end up in black-colored plastic products?

According to the study’s researchers, this is linked to mistakes in the recycling process. “Our findings indicate that when companies intentionally use flame retardants in products like electronics, they can contaminate things downstream,” Megan Liu, study co-author and science and policy manager at Toxic-Free Future, tells Well+Good. “Flame retardants should not be present in these products. They can leach into food or children’s saliva through toys.”

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Fire retardants are used in some electronic devices to lower the risk of fires. But when they’re recycled improperly, the chemicals can show up in the resulting products, such as food containers and toys. “Flame retardants should not be present in these products,” Liu says, because they can leach into food or into kids’ bodies if they put the toys in their mouths.

In the study’s conclusion, Liu and her fellow researchers wrote, “the detection of flame retardants in collected household products indicates that recycling, without the necessary transparency and restrictions to ensure safety, is resulting in unexpected exposure to toxic flame retardants in household items.”

How dangerous is this finding?

The findings are not ideal. PBDEs have been linked to cancer, along with reproductive, thyroid, and endocrine issues. Most recently, an April  JAMA Network Open study found that people who had the highest levels of PBDEs in their blood were about 300 percent more likely to die from cancer compared to people with the lowest levels.

“Brominated fire-retardant chemicals are linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, and endocrine disruption in animal and human studies,” says Kelly Johnson-Arbor, MD, a toxicologist at MedStar Health. “Use of kitchen utensils, food containers, and toys that are contaminated with these compounds may cause these chemicals to enter the human body and contribute to unwanted health effects for some people.”

Liu says that flame retardants are “particularly concerning” because they’re so persistent in the environment. “It’s especially concerning that the phased-out flame retardants are still present in products when research shows they can cause cancer,” she says.

How to reduce your exposure

It’s important to point out that the study only looked at black plastic items, making it difficult to know if this link exists for plastics of other colors, too. However, if you’re concerned about potential exposure to flame retardants from black plastics, you can simply do your best to avoid them, Dr. Johnson-Arbor says.

Liu recommends doing your best to replace all plastic utensils with wooden or stainless steel options, when possible.

Heating foods in microwave-safe containers, like ceramic or glass (rather than plastic), can also be helpful, Dr. Johnson-Arbor says.

It’s worth noting here that fire retardants are also used intentionally in a range of products, including sofas, car interiors, infant car seats, and yoga mats, per the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Those retardants can then leach into the air, where they latch onto dust, food, and water, according to the NIEHS.

To reduce your exposure: “People can also practice regularly cleaning and ventilating to clear out any flame retardants accumulating in the air,” Dr. Johnson-Arbor says. “Frequent hand washing, regular wet dusting, mopping, and vacuuming can also help.”

But Liu stresses that we shouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. “While we can take steps to avoid purchasing plastic items and keeping our homes clean, we can’t shop our way out of this problem,” she says. “The onus should not be put on consumers. We need policies put in place to help.”