近期一项关于黑塑料厨具释放毒素的研究在网络上引发恐慌，该研究声称厨具中含有的阻燃剂会渗入食物，危害健康。然而，加拿大《国家邮报》指出，该研究存在严重的数学错误，导致结果被夸大。研究计算出的每日毒素暴露量为34,700纳克，接近美国环保署（EPA）的限值42,000纳克。但实际上，EPA的限值计算有误，应为420,000纳克，实际暴露量远低于限值。尽管如此，仍需警惕黑塑料厨具，但网络上的恐慌情绪可能被夸大了。

🧪 一项研究声称，黑塑料厨具中的阻燃剂会渗入食物，释放毒素，引发公众担忧。

🧮 该研究的数学计算存在错误，将美国环保署的每日毒素暴露限值误算为42,000纳克，实际应为420,000纳克，导致结果被夸大。

📢 尽管研究存在错误，但进行研究的倡导组织“无毒未来”表示，该错误不影响整体发现、结论和建议，仍需对黑塑料厨具保持警惕。

If TikTok had you rushing to throw away your black plastic kitchen utensils, rest assured that those tools weren't as bad as they seemed.

A study went viral in November — as much as any study can go viral — that suggested black plastic kitchen utensils were shed lots of poison into our food thanks to a flame retardant carried over from recycled electronics that helped make the plastic tools. However, there was a big problem in the study that came down to simple math, as Canada's National Post reported.

In short, the study looked to measure the median amount a flame retardant toxin might get out of black plastic spatulas during cooking. The study found that figure was 34,700 nanograms per day, which, the study noted, was close to the EPA limit of 42,000. That, in part sparked lots of panic all over TikTok and in major publications about how black plastic cooking utensils were slowly poisoning everyone. I cannot tell you how many posts I saw online of folks throwing away their utensils or telling others to do so.

However, the study made a really simple math error, one that may have made its findings sound more severe than they should. The National Post reported that the study calculated that EPA limit by multiplying 7,000 — the amount of nanograms of the toxin per kilogram of bodyweight — by 60, to get the limit for a 60-kilogram (132 pound) person per day. That's how they got 42,000. But 60 multiplied by 7,000 is, in fact, 420,000 — meaning the exposure is actually less than one-tenth the limit.

Now that's not to say folks want any of that toxin leeching into their food. Zero would be a great figure. But as YouTube's favorite science nerd, Hank Green, pointed out on Bluesky "that paper on black plastic was a bit blown out of proportion by a simple math error."

Toxic-Free Future, an advocacy group that carried out the study, has said that while there was a mistake it does not affect the overall findings.

"As noted in the published correction, this comparison was not a major point of the study and the findings, conclusions, and recommendations are unaffected by this correction," the group wrote on Bluesky.

So you might want to still be wary of black plastic — but all those headlines and TikToks might've been a bit misleading.