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The plastic cutting board grooved and flaking from use. The stacked takeout containers that get second lives transporting your lunch to work. Your trusty black spatula. All of these everyday kitchen tools and more are responsible for microplastics getting into food, and then into human bodies, as NPR’s Joe Hernandez reports.
Tiny plastic particles have been found in many parts of the human body, including the heart, lungs and testicles. One recent study found that a single plastic cutting board could shed between 7.4 and 50.7 grams of microplastics per person per year. Though there’s not enough evidence to say definitively that microplastics and nanoplastics pose a risk to human health, scientists who study them are increasingly concerned that they may.
Here's what to know about microplastics and food preparation — and what you can do if you want to deplasticify your kitchen. Anne-Marie Bonneau, author of The Zero-Waste Chef talked to NPR about how she went plastic-free. She recommends taking these steps gradually, rather than one big plastic purge.
🔪 Replace plastic cutting boards with wooden ones. When you chop vegetables on a plastic cutting board, the knife is slicing through the plastic and releasing tiny particles, which can ride your zucchini rounds right into that casserole.
🚫🔥 Rather than plastic Tupperware, store leftovers in metal or glass containers, or glass jars. If you do use plastic containers, never microwave them. Heating plastic containers can cause millions of microplastics and billions of nanoplastic particles to be released, one study found.
🍞 Ditch plastic wrap for alternatives like parchment paper, beeswax paper, muslin and cheesecloth. "A lot of recipes for bread tell you how to make the dough, and to proof it, they'll say cover the bowl with plastic wrap," Bonneau says. "Well, you can just put a plate on top of the bowl. Or the lid of a pot."
🧽 Switch out plastic sponges for cellulose. I personally love these pop-up sponges from Trader Joe’s. (Not a paid endorsement!)
Find more advice and ideas for kitchen plastic replacements here.
Go deeper: Scientists know our bodies are full of microplastics. What are they doing to us? |
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Mental health problems are often a taboo subject in the workplace, where there can be pressure to present yourself at your most functional and least vulnerable. But one man in the midst of a mental health crisis that could have cost him his job, if not his life, got help from his boss. He told his story to the Hidden Brain team for their series “My Unsung Hero.”
In the summer of 2023, the man says he started sleeping less and less and going for long walks at night. Then the delusions set in. He eventually came to believe that he was a government sleeper agent, secretly trained from a young age to serve the U.S. military. He didn't know it at the time, but he was experiencing psychosis. He became convinced that a spaceship would come soon to transport him to a secret base on the moon, and told his boss he was quitting to work as an undercover agent.
A few days later, he was arrested and jailed for a DUI, "Which was really driving under the influence of a psychotic episode, not under the influence of any substance," he said.
What happened next changed everything.
Also: What to do if you're struggling with your mental health at work |
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SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
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The all-female divers of Jeju Island have a 'superpower' in their genes
A promising genetic treatment tailor-made for a baby born with a rare disorder
One woman's fight to remove barriers for aspiring doctors with disabilities
The 'Oscar' of food prizes goes to a Brazilian biologist who harnessed the power of bacteria
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism online.
All our best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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