Fixed the link. There was a lot of black plastic that got replaced this year, and a tea kettle as well, just in my family alone. Still, calling attention to the problems of using plastic in cooking was probably a worthy cause. Math errors. 'Who did the peer review on that?' is the next question. What other health issues are simmering away until someone notices and writes about them?

The removal from the Web of Science on December 16 came just a day after a correction was issued on the black plastic study. That study claimed to find a "high exposure potential" of toxic flame retardants in plastic household items, particularly kitchen utensils, that are made from recycled electronics. The findings sparked a firestorm of media coverage imploring people to immediately throw away any black plastic utensils in their kitchens.

However, the authors made a math error in their analysis that put their estimate of exposure to toxins from kitchen utensils off by an order of magnitude. Corrected, the article notes that the exposure potential from kitchen utensils is actually less than a tenth of the limit considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. Further, the study found flame retardant contamination in less than 10 percent of the 203 household products it examined—and only about 8 percent of 109 kitchen utensils.

Despite this, the correction notice on the article states that the error "does not affect the overall conclusion of the paper."

That scare had me looking beyond plastics at the surfaces on all of my cooking and baking pans, and deciding it is time to either change how I use them (line with parchment paper) or toss them if they're too far gone.

In my virtual world I started making lists in the new Bluesky environment, and the most important so far to me are critical thinkers in science and in politics/culture. I'll make a couple of other lists later (Tech and Writers, at least.)

A good-sized box left the house on Thursday after an eBay sale and I've started testing the promotion feature (of course it costs - but it seems the algorithms are set so your stuff is almost invisible if you don't pay them more.) The box I shipped wasn't promoted, none of my sales ever have been. But AI is making itself felt over there in eBayland.