Q: I have a few black plastic kitchen utensils in my drawer, but I’ve read that they’re dangerous. Is that true?. Recent headlines have urged people to immediately throw out any black plastic items lying around their homes, warning that they could contain toxic chemicals.. A study published in October in the journal Chemosphere spurred many of these reports. It found that some of these items — including spatulas, sushi takeout trays and children’s toys — could shed flame retardants.. But whether they pose a risk to your health is a more complex question. Previous studies have shown that flame retardants can seep out of plastics, especially when heated. While exposure to high levels of these chemicals has been linked to serious health effects, it’s not clear how much any one household item increases risk.. Why are flame retardants in spatulas, anyway?. Manufacturers started adding flame retardants to products like TV sets and computers in the 1970s to slow the spread of fire. But companies have had to phase them out as studies over the past two decades have shown that they are toxic and could be cancerous to animals and humans at high levels of exposure. Some of these chemicals, however, have resurfaced in plastic household items made from recycled electronic waste, since the regulations that reined in the use of certain flame retardants did not apply to such materials.. The fact that the banned chemicals have appeared in household products shows that they “can bite us a second time if we’re not careful,” said Joseph Allen, a professor of environmental health at Harvard University who has studied the health risks of flame retardants.. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.. Already a subscriber? Log in.. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
