Seems to me that the results are inconclusive at the moment, which only means that the potential effect can’t be noticed as easily as the effects of asbestos, DDT, smoking or radiation. That doesn’t mean that the effect isn’t there. It may well exist, but it certainly isn’t very strong, because otherwise we would have noticed it already and the debate would have been over decades ago. But since we can’t rule it out at this point, I really don’t blame anyone from being a bit cautious.
As a side note, you would get lots of clicks for your article if you were say that “we’re all going to die because of plastic”, but it wouldn’t be a very defendable position. Fortunately for the author, there is a way to make the reader think that without explicitly saying anything like it. By using clever words like “likely”, “associated”, “possibly”, “may be”, “in vitro”, “could disrupt”, “linked to”, “animal studies” etc. you can sort of say things without actually saying anything. You can also make the reader feel informed without actually conveying much information at all.
I agree about the soft language they use and plastics are a BROAD category of materials… but yeah, I like to be cautious around exposing them to heat and using them for long term liquid storage.
For what its worth, I think aeropress uses plastic that’s less bad, if that’s possible (I believe this consideration went into the design).
Still, I’m with you on this. It’s really hard to get away from plastic though. Even in relatively high end drip machines, the internals of most espresso makers, etc.
Yeah… you can always just… clean it… unflavored denture / retainer/ mouth guard cleaning tablets or … actual coffee cleaning solution (also available in tablet form) should remove most or all of funk…
What’s the problem with pressure+heat? In these kinds or pressures and temperatures, the plastic appears to be strong enough to handle it well enough.
it’s strong enough to, but i don’t trust plastic not to leach out nasties into my coffee in those conditions, plus it seems to retain grossness :(
Interesting. I would like to look into that. Got any good articles in mind?
not the best article out there but here’s one that covers it: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/18/are-plastic-containers-safe-to-use-food-experts
Seems to me that the results are inconclusive at the moment, which only means that the potential effect can’t be noticed as easily as the effects of asbestos, DDT, smoking or radiation. That doesn’t mean that the effect isn’t there. It may well exist, but it certainly isn’t very strong, because otherwise we would have noticed it already and the debate would have been over decades ago. But since we can’t rule it out at this point, I really don’t blame anyone from being a bit cautious.
As a side note, you would get lots of clicks for your article if you were say that “we’re all going to die because of plastic”, but it wouldn’t be a very defendable position. Fortunately for the author, there is a way to make the reader think that without explicitly saying anything like it. By using clever words like “likely”, “associated”, “possibly”, “may be”, “in vitro”, “could disrupt”, “linked to”, “animal studies” etc. you can sort of say things without actually saying anything. You can also make the reader feel informed without actually conveying much information at all.
I agree about the soft language they use and plastics are a BROAD category of materials… but yeah, I like to be cautious around exposing them to heat and using them for long term liquid storage.
For what its worth, I think aeropress uses plastic that’s less bad, if that’s possible (I believe this consideration went into the design).
Still, I’m with you on this. It’s really hard to get away from plastic though. Even in relatively high end drip machines, the internals of most espresso makers, etc.
i super agree, french press or moka is my target, i just miss the flavor the pressure creates. i’ll figure it out one day!
i think the tritan plastic they’re using in the new models will be interesting, def seems less porous and likely to hang onto bad flavors x_x
Yeah… you can always just… clean it… unflavored denture / retainer/ mouth guard cleaning tablets or … actual coffee cleaning solution (also available in tablet form) should remove most or all of funk…
:0… okay i can def try that, yea!!!