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Paper straws not so eco-friendly, 90% contain toxic “forever chemicals” (newatlas.com)
41 points by myshpa on Aug 25, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments


Wow, even bamboo:

>Bamboo straws fared only slightly better than paper ones, with PFAS found in 80% of brands tested. The chemicals were found in 75% of plastic straws and 40% of glass brands. PFAS were not detected in any of the steel straws tested.

Guess steel is the way to go. There are very few situations where I feel the need for a straw, fortunately.


Is chromium a forever chemical? Might want to avoid stainless steel.


Just don’t go fast and chip your teeth.

From experience


I don't understand the necessity of using a straw for drinking in most of the situations.


maybe people don't like ice to hit their mouths? And, it is convenient and hygienic. If I get coke, I don't have to worry about dirt on top part and can just use straw without worrying.


coke does more harm than the can dirt


Most of the time you are right but rarely that dirt can kill you.


For simple hedonism, not even pricing in the environment, we have:

paper straw < no straw < plastic straw

A soggy straw is pure masochism.


Surprised no one is talking about reusable straws? I have some and they're nice.


I have a stainless steel one and it's weird. In conducts heat and I worry I'm going to chip my teeth. I used it like once. I'd rank "no straw" higher.


From the paper:

> with total mean PFAS concentrations (triplicate analysis) ranging from 0.043 ± 0.004 ng/straw to 29.1 ± 1.66 ng/straw (median = 0.554 ng/straw)


Put some regular paper into water and see how long it lasts. Clearly, paper straws had a bunch of nasty shit in them to prevent the paper from just dissolving. What did people think?!

It’s like how when I was a kid they moved from paper bags to plastic at checkout to “save trees” and now we realize plastic isn’t the perfect material.

There will be many more cases of this because there’s no motivation to spend time studying miracle materials, it’s always about immediately finding several ways to extract profit from it in every use case possible.


Is there anything that does not contain these chems?


Sunlight?


How do they compare to plastic straws?

Also there's some weird culture war shibboleth about using disposable plastic to own the libs now.


> there's some weird culture war shibboleth about using disposable plastic to own the libs now.

You know what's older and more traditional than a plastic straw?

No straw.

(Or, actual straw. If that was ever a thing people did.)


In 2008, I was out in the San Diego Zoo with my fiancée, and of course we visited a restaurant and I had a soda. So the cup arrived, but I couldn't locate a straw, and I asked a server, who gave me quite a spiel on how discarded straws are often harmful to animals, and of course the Zoo is now doing their part to save the animals. They didn't offer any straws or alternative material, they simply didn't offer straws at all.

So what could I do? I had been heretofore completely unaware of any threat, and perhaps looked like a monumental jerk for even suggesting that I wanted one.


This is the last straw.


[dupe]





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