Did headlines saying to throw out black plastic spatulas get ahead of the science?

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. Headlines warning people to throw out their black plastic kitchen utensils live on, as do social media posts warning of “secret toxins” in your kitchen. Less prominent? A correction to the peer-reviewed study those headlines were based on. In October, the journal Chemosphere published a study by researchers in the U.S. and Netherlands that found brominated fire retardants (BFR) in black plastic household products sold in the U.S., including kitchen items. But there was a math error when the study’s authors calculated the risk — and it was off by an order of magnitude.  The authors said they regret the error, but it “does not affect the overall conclusion of the paper,” as it was part of an example used to compare exposure levels to add context, not a core finding.  “The key thing our study does is provide evidence that when toxic flame retardants are used in electronics, they can make their way into household products where they are not needed or expected,”...