Should you throw out your black plastic spatula — and any other cookware made of black plastic? Unfortunately, yes, probably. A new study finds that black plastic contains higher amounts of flame retardants and other toxic materials than other plastics. And health experts say that means we should try to keep it away from heat… and our food. We’ll talk about how concerned we should be about the plastics in our kitchen and how to evaluate the risks.
Update Dec. 18: Toxic-Free Future published a correction to its study on Dec. 15, stating that the original study — which claimed that the exposure to flame retardants neared an Environmental Protection Agency threshold for potential health risk — contained a mathematical error. The exposure is actually one-tenth of the originally published figure.