Picture the scene: you are sitting at a cafe on a hot summer’s day and decide to order a glass of lemonade. It arrives ice cold and you smile in contentment until the waiter asks if you want a straw. Now you have to choose to either take a straw or not.
If you have been following the scientific debate on the effect of different types of straw on the environment and human health, you’ll know that the decision is not an easy one.
The trouble started back in 2018 when the BBC TV programme Blue Planet broke through public apathy on the matter of single-use plastics showing the harm they were doing to the environment.
Pictures of plastic straws causing the death of turtles and other aquatic life were published in national newspapers. Governments scrambled to justify they had let plastic pollution reach such an appalling state of affairs – they singled out plastic straws as something that they could ban. And so they did, ignoring those of us who warned about the unexpected consequences.
This month one of those unexpected consequences turned up in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants. A study by a European research group showed there are significant health and environmental risks associated with the paper-based and bamboo-based straws that have replaced plastic straws.
The original drinking straw was made of straw, hence the name. It is plentiful throughout the world, being a by-product of growing crops such as wheat and rye. Historically it was used by people in rural settings to drink milk from bowls and beer from amphora.
Drinking from wheat and rye straws does impart a slightly grassy taste to each mouthful and so the paper straw was invented in the last part of the 19th century. This solved that problem but had the issue that they got soft when wet as they absorbed liquid, and so became less functional during use.
To the rescue came plastic. It didn’t get soggy, it could be made into bright colours and could be made into novelty shapes such as spirals.
By the middle of the 20th century, the plastic straw poking out of a fizzy soda became an iconic part of the growing fast-food businesses. As consumerism accelerated plastic packaging became disposable on a vast scale as did the billons of plastic straws being sold.
The recent ban on plastic straws saw the introduction of the modern paper straw. It was hoped by legislators that it would address the environmental issues of single-use plastic.
However, scientists observing the performance of the new paper straws found themselves puzzled by their ability to repel liquids and resist getting soggy. Could there be an additive, they wondered, that might be allowing paper straws to perform so well?
Read more:
- Microplastics: Are they harming me, and can I do anything about it?
- Researchers find every human tissue tested can absorb microplastics
The rise of forever chemicals
The first study to investigate this was performed by Alina Timshina and co-workers in 2021. They studied plastic, paper and plant-based straws obtained in the USA. It showed that paper and plant-based straws contain PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
These are fluorine-based chemicals that have remarkable properties in repelling water, grease and pretty much anything. They are widely used in products designed to resist water and oil such as raincoats, furniture, cookware and food packaging.
PFAS are chemically and thermally very stable which means that almost nothing reacts or degrades them. This means they persist in the environment and will do so for thousands of years. For this reason, they have been dubbed ‘forever chemicals’.
They have been found literally everywhere from the Arctic ice to the Amazon rainforest. They also make it into the human body by migrating from packaging into our food and drink.
Once PFAS are in our blood they are associated with a number of health effects such as liver and kidney disease. There is also evidence that PFAS may lead to increased risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women, and decreased immune response. Some studies show an association of PFAS exposure with kidney and testicular cancer. They have been shown to harm wildlife too.
All the evidence points to paper and plant-based straws having significant PFAS in them. PFAS have also been found in plastic straws but at lower levels. The only material determined to be free of PFAS was stainless steel.
All this new data makes the decision about whether to drink lemonade or any other drink with or without a straw a little more difficult.
What straw should you use?
If you are worried about PFAS then choosing a paper or plant-based straw might expose you and the environment to more of them. But you can’t tell they are present in any particular paper or plant-based straw because they are invisible and there is no requirement for the manufacturers to disclose their ingredients.
Additionally, plastic straws contribute to the environmental problem of single-use plastics and so are banned in many countries, such as Spain, India and France. That leaves stainless steel straws which are reusable and easy to clean, but currently not widely available and so you risk the embarrassment of sounding like a very demanding customer when asking for one.
But then again, maybe we should all be more demanding when it comes to preserving the environment and human health.
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