Curious Cook: A diet of plastics

"Popcorn lung” is a serious lung disease linked to a chemical called diacetyl, which was used to give microwaveable bags of popcorn a buttery flavour and aroma. - 123rf.com

An item which I had been researching is proving annoying. While it is clear pollution by plastics is obviously detrimental to our environment, it is difficult to determine the actual impact plastics are having on ecosystems and human health issues.

I was searching for something simple and quantitative, such as eating X number of plastic-packed meals cooked in a microwave oven would raise the risk of some disease by Y due to Z quantities of some plastic compound. But the reality is such conclusive data is not available for most plastic-related chemicals. Hence the determination of a causal link between general plastic pollution and human health is often difficult, unless there is a clear link between a particular type of plastic and detectable human ailments. One such example is Bisphenol-A (BPA) documented in a previous column (Banana leaf, plastic and other musings).