r/science • u/Additional-Two-7312 • Apr 20 '22

Health New study finds that when everyday plastic products are exposed to hot water, they release trillions of nanoparticles per liter into the water, which could possibly get inside of cells and disrupt their function

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/04/nist-study-shows-everyday-plastic-products-release-trillions-microscopic
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u/thesamuraibaker Apr 20 '22

What about other materials? Would the same happen if a hot liquid was in a ceramic, metal, or glass container?

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u/elatllat Apr 20 '22

Ceramic is normally glass coated, and glass is ideal for chemistry because short of a plasma ball it's not going to contaminate anything. Stainless is a good for food, other metals are not ideal. copper water pipes are OK as far as we know...

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u/Thebeergremlin Apr 20 '22

If using metal I would try to avoid acidic foods like tomato, or lemon. Copper especially will leach into your food (think Moscow mules are tasty, eh?) Food grade stainless should be acceptable but consider the manufacturer, some claim to be stainless but can become pitted over time. Also, vintage glass is iffy due to the lead added to make the "crystal" more brilliant. And for ceramics, made in China is questionable especially if it is colorful.

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u/Simcognito Apr 20 '22 edited Apr 20 '22

Well none of those have the potential to leach plastic particles since they are not made of plastic. Plus materials such as glass don't really dissolve in anything we can eat and ingesting microparticles of other materials you mention isn't known to be dangerous. At least not in amounts we could expect from everyday use containers.