Speaker 1: Now really, really, now, really hello, and welcome to really
Speaker 1: know really with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who want
Speaker 1: you to know that subscribing to our show brings so
Speaker 1: much joy you can see it even on a microscopic level.
Speaker 1: And speaking of microscopic levels, we now know that microplastics
Speaker 1: are literally everywhere in our water, in our food, even
Speaker 1: in the organs of wild animals found in the most
Speaker 1: remote places on Earth. But wait, now, scientists are discovering
Speaker 1: that there are even smaller fragments called nanoplastics, so small
Speaker 1: we actually consume them with nearly every breath we take. Really, no, really,
Speaker 1: these tiny particles and the chemicals that make plastics have
Speaker 1: been found in our brains, lungs, kidneys, liver, and yes,
Speaker 1: even male genitals. So as owners of male genitals, Jason
Speaker 1: and Peter had questions, so they turned to the man
Speaker 1: who actually tests the levels of microp plastics in the
Speaker 1: foods we buy and eat, the director of Food Safety
Speaker 1: Research and Testing at Consumer Reports, doctor James Rogers.
Speaker 2: So take a deep, plastic y breath. Here's Jason and
Speaker 2: Peter very.
Speaker 3: Serious, because I know what our episode is partially going
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 4: About today and I was.
Speaker 3: Just about to crack up in this this bottle of water.
Speaker 5: And now I'm like, don't do it. Don't do it because.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, because I know, you know, particulates and
Speaker 6: water particulates, you might as well just chew the bottle.
Speaker 4: Because of them.
Speaker 5: Because of the microplastic microplastics.
Speaker 6: So we read microplasics, water, microplastics, and food the one
Speaker 6: now I draw the line.
Speaker 4: The headline is.
Speaker 6: Microplastics Discovery and penises raises a rectal dysfunction.
Speaker 4: Hello, And I said, no, really, no, really, I'm there.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question. Does it add then?
Speaker 3: Does it lens, girth, firmness anything? Does it affect quality
Speaker 3: of delight?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 4: There goes on a very special episode.
Speaker 6: This is the while that I read great guest on
Speaker 6: The problem is microplastics are all around us, in our food.
Speaker 4: In our water, even in our air.
Speaker 6: I am getting a little concerned out environmentally about just
Speaker 6: that it's out there.
Speaker 4: Also, when I always two weeks ago, when we.
Speaker 3: Were talking to micro you were fine, life was good.
Speaker 6: You know, being oblivious is a good thing. I mean
Speaker 6: because when they start attacking.
Speaker 3: Well, also, you know, we talk about some serious stuff,
Speaker 3: but we we we try to do it with.
Speaker 4: Light, oh light, and so how and.
Speaker 3: Some hope to it because there's some serious stuff that
Speaker 3: comes up.
Speaker 6: But it always looks for incredible people in this, in microplastics,
Speaker 6: et cetera, and in save food safety, but in looking
Speaker 6: for this, and you know, I take it very seriously
Speaker 6: when we book our guests. The cool thing about doctor
Speaker 6: James Rogers, not only is he a doctor in microbiology,
Speaker 6: but he's with Consumer Reports, the director of food safety
Speaker 6: and research and testing. And what I love about Consumer
Speaker 6: Reports is they're not beholden to anybody. They their own product,
Speaker 6: They test their own product, so it's not like they
Speaker 6: have to have research. We have doctor James Rodgers with us,
Speaker 6: and how are you a doctor or James or mister Rogers?
Speaker 6: A whole new time When you say it that way,
Speaker 6: I've heard that my entire life. Sorry, more as you
Speaker 6: can see, we're idiots. But I love that you're with
Speaker 6: Consumer Reports and just get let's talk about that for
Speaker 6: a second. When you walk down the hallway, there are
Speaker 6: you opening doors and the guys on on a toilet
Speaker 6: going testing testing right now.
Speaker 4: Another guy's punching a mattress. Another guy's punching a mattress.
Speaker 3: I mean they you guys like the remember in In
Speaker 3: I think it was Banana's Woody Allen's character is a
Speaker 3: product tester and he's on an exercise bike that goes
Speaker 3: back and forth to the desk and he picks up
Speaker 3: a phone and I always figure that's what it's like
Speaker 3: a Consumer reports.
Speaker 4: Doesn't look isn't that way?
Speaker 6: You open the door and the guy's on the toilet
Speaker 6: going now testing testing guys are dropping stuff.
Speaker 3: Guys like the hallway of I wouldn't want to test
Speaker 3: the jab in these toilet Like is the temperature control correct?
Speaker 3: You know, it's always a shock. I know it's going
Speaker 3: to be okay, and it still surprises me every time.
Speaker 3: It's always I think there's I acted that up for
Speaker 3: people not watching it on YouTube.
Speaker 4: I went also, so is it is it? Is it
Speaker 4: like that?
Speaker 6: Are you ever shocked by that? Or is it in
Speaker 6: a different building a different wing?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 8: No, the way consumer ports set up is that there's
Speaker 8: individual labs for each product. So yes, we do test toilets,
Speaker 8: but what we do is we pull it up with
Speaker 8: balls and plush it to imitate.
Speaker 5: How do you mean that anyway? I'm not sure. I
Speaker 5: followed you, dare you?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 4: Really?
Speaker 5: You knew immediately what he's talking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want the load. Excuse me that duplicates.
Speaker 5: They're not going to you're not bringing clarity.
Speaker 4: They're bringing bustlers of people in from a buffet to
Speaker 4: test their product. Is that these are scientists?
Speaker 6: Somebody said we can, we can measure the density and
Speaker 6: wait and duplicate and see how many flushes its.
Speaker 4: Work in front of her.
Speaker 6: Even a non scientist configures figure Hello, announcement, we're testing anybody?
Speaker 5: What do you tested the toilet? Does it actually flush?
Speaker 5: Does it swirl the red wet?
Speaker 8: You hook it up, You hook it up just like
Speaker 8: you would in your own home, and you fill it
Speaker 8: up with these balls, and then you flush it and
Speaker 8: you see if that load is taken away and goes
Speaker 8: down the drain.
Speaker 5: But now you've got balls and your system and that can't.
Speaker 8: No, no, no, no no, it falls into a track trash trash.
Speaker 6: Really, as you can see, you really have to talk
Speaker 6: remedia today.
Speaker 3: When you do this, it's like, wow, okay, so look
Speaker 3: who did research knows everything about consumer reports, testing and
Speaker 3: laboratory facilities.
Speaker 5: Oh I know, I know. It falls into a trap.
Speaker 6: Oh, hold on the consumer, their flushing falls into the
Speaker 6: sour system. All that's all.
Speaker 4: I think that's scientists, not the laboratories. And I know
Speaker 4: that scientice gets called in to go.
Speaker 6: Hell, you're fleshing bulls in the sert system of the
Speaker 6: You're fired.
Speaker 4: I think that's what happening.
Speaker 3: I did an episode where I well had a thing
Speaker 3: and it's blow.
Speaker 5: All I know anything that happened.
Speaker 6: So in your in your area of expertise, we're hearing
Speaker 6: about plastics in water and food in the particulars in air.
Speaker 6: Can you give us some just how dangerous it is
Speaker 6: and what they're trying to do about particulates in our
Speaker 6: food and our water.
Speaker 8: Well, we have not tested microplastics ourselves. Well, we tested
Speaker 8: with the plasticizer chemicals that are used to make plastic, right,
Speaker 8: But there are connected and interrelated. So, for instance, microplastics
Speaker 8: refer to very small pieces of plastic that will shere
Speaker 8: all of a water bottle of a plastic container during use.
Speaker 8: They're small. There's microplastics and their nanoplastics that are even smaller,
Speaker 8: and if they get in the water, they get into food.
Speaker 8: You consume that and then they accumulate in the body.
Speaker 8: So there's the potential for there to be a problem
Speaker 8: because those little pieces of plastic could let these plasticizes
Speaker 8: or chemicals out, which have been associated with intocrine disruption, cancer,
Speaker 8: high blood pressure.
Speaker 7: But we don't know, at least in the.
Speaker 8: Data that I've seen, to say that there is a
Speaker 8: very strong connection between the presence of these plastics in
Speaker 8: your body and an.
Speaker 7: Actual public health problem or a health problem.
Speaker 8: I think the data and the information is being collected,
Speaker 8: but I haven't seen where it's been proven that, yes,
Speaker 8: this is a problem.
Speaker 7: Exactly what the probation.
Speaker 3: But this goes into my wife, who is really really
Speaker 3: concerned about this because I guess there's been a flurry
Speaker 3: of new articles and new research that are being released
Speaker 3: about these kinds of micro and nanoplastics.
Speaker 5: So even things like we have a series of.
Speaker 3: Little dishes and pots that are designed to go into
Speaker 3: a microwave. They're very hard. You don't even think of
Speaker 3: them as plastic. They're almost like ceramic plastic. But one
Speaker 3: of the articles said, yeh, don't do that because every
Speaker 3: time you microwave it, you're releasing some of this chemical
Speaker 3: into the oh Man.
Speaker 8: So in our article, yeah, we talked about do not
Speaker 8: microwave anything in plastic.
Speaker 7: In fact, in my house we got rid of those, yeah, those.
Speaker 8: Chinese takeout containers all that. We replace it all with
Speaker 8: glass because of that exact problem, because the heat releases
Speaker 8: it into your food.
Speaker 4: So so.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I mean, I don't know. I know this
Speaker 3: is not necessarily.
Speaker 5: Where you where you guys would go to follow up.
Speaker 3: But why we know that plastic and plastic waste, and
Speaker 3: now these microscopic bits of plastic getting into our food
Speaker 3: chain and getting into our systems. Why is there not
Speaker 3: or is there a push to start really eliminating and
Speaker 3: replacing plastics.
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem to be in that positive for the world.
Speaker 3: It's a it was a consumer positive for a long time,
Speaker 3: but now it seems to be a destructive element for
Speaker 3: the entire planet.
Speaker 5: So why is there no global push to get rid
Speaker 5: of this stuff?
Speaker 7: Well? I think there is.
Speaker 8: For instance, in Maryland where I live, they have banned
Speaker 8: the use of plastic bags in the grocery store, right,
Speaker 8: And so there are different small movements, mostly by advocates
Speaker 8: that are concerned about this problem, but there has not
Speaker 8: been a worldwide push or a regulatory federal regulatory push,
Speaker 8: it's more local. You have to understand that if you
Speaker 8: get rid of plastics, what are you going to use?
Speaker 8: It's going to be end up being metal or glass
Speaker 8: or something else that can be shown not to cause
Speaker 8: these problems. Right, The expense is going to go up,
Speaker 8: the fragility might go up, the weight's going to go
Speaker 8: up when you're shipping food imagine shipping it in a
Speaker 8: plastic bag versus a glass container.
Speaker 7: And what the weight is going to be.
Speaker 8: So there are a lot of things that have to
Speaker 8: be resolved. But I would pose that there are some
Speaker 8: people that are pushing back against our use of plastic
Speaker 8: and trying to decrease it in maybe small amounts, but
Speaker 8: they're trying.
Speaker 6: What are some of the stuff that you've studied that
Speaker 6: we would be shocked about.
Speaker 7: Are shocked to hear or surprise to hear regarding plastic?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Yeah, So what we did is we did the testing
Speaker 8: for plasticizers and food and so we went to the
Speaker 8: grocery store. We bought eighty five different types of foods
Speaker 8: and we test them for thalates, which is one of
Speaker 8: the plastic sizer chemicals, and bysphonos which is the second one,
Speaker 8: and This is a repeat of food testing we did
Speaker 8: about seven years ago.
Speaker 7: And so some of the.
Speaker 8: Things we found is that every product we tested had
Speaker 8: thalates in it at some certain levels. Okay, some of
Speaker 8: the problems that you may not expect to have thalates,
Speaker 8: such as organic products.
Speaker 7: Will have high amounts of tholates in it.
Speaker 8: Fried foods usually has a lot of thalates, and so
Speaker 8: we advocate that you don't eat as much fried foods.
Speaker 8: Fast food had a lot of thalates in it, so
Speaker 8: we suggest you reduce the amount of fast food that
Speaker 8: you eat. There was one product that was organic that
Speaker 8: had the highest amount of thalates and everything that we tested.
Speaker 8: And so what we said in the article towards the
Speaker 8: end is we can't tell you how to avoid these chemicals,
Speaker 8: but we can tell you how to reduce your exposure
Speaker 8: by them. What food you eat, so a more natural diet,
Speaker 8: more fresh fruits and vegetables, that type of thing.
Speaker 3: Well, some of them are really, if I'm remembering correctly,
Speaker 3: some of them are really not what you expected. Like
Speaker 3: you open a tin can, you go, oh, a tin
Speaker 3: can of soup, and you go, I'm good.
Speaker 5: I opened a tin can of soup. But the liner
Speaker 5: inside they can.
Speaker 3: Which I wouldn't even think of, you know it, or
Speaker 3: inside a milk carton.
Speaker 6: Same kind of thing, and it's check out the Consumer
Speaker 6: Reports article will be shocked.
Speaker 7: Now, there was some good news.
Speaker 8: The bisphenols, which is another category of plasticizers. They actually
Speaker 8: were less than when we tested UH seven years ago,
Speaker 8: and so that suggested to us that if these manufacturers
Speaker 8: want to make a difference, they can because not all
Speaker 8: the not all the tholates, for instance, were found in
Speaker 8: every food and there were lower levels. So someone's doing
Speaker 8: something better than others of trying to keep these chemicals
Speaker 8: out of.
Speaker 4: What incentivize them to turn down the bisphanol rate?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean one of them was that the FDA
Speaker 8: banned this pinola from baby water bottles or baby bottles, right,
Speaker 8: and so that was a start to actually ban these
Speaker 8: products from food content surfaces such as baby bottles, but
Speaker 8: it kind of stopped there, and so we would want
Speaker 8: them to do the same thing with dalts.
Speaker 3: You know, as I'm listening to you, I'm really wondering.
Speaker 3: As Peter and I joke all the time, I am
Speaker 3: a big believer in ignorance is bliss? How do you
Speaker 3: you know so much about how everything can hurt us,
Speaker 3: kill us spinaticut.
Speaker 5: I mean, do you do you feel you are a
Speaker 5: little more.
Speaker 3: Existentially cautious or worried about using the day to day
Speaker 3: things we all consume or use in some way? Then
Speaker 3: perhaps someone as blissfully ignorant as I would be.
Speaker 7: Well, let me give you an example.
Speaker 8: I have a blended family of five kids, and they
Speaker 8: hate to hear when I'm about to report something about the.
Speaker 7: News, right, and it's there's nothing that we can eat.
Speaker 8: Like my son, he's a he works out a lot,
Speaker 8: and we're going to test. We're talking about testing protein powders,
Speaker 8: and either he wants me to test what he uses
Speaker 8: or he doesn't because he may not want the bad news.
Speaker 8: I think the way that I think about it is
Speaker 8: I'm going to do the best that I can with
Speaker 8: the knowledge that I have. Like I said, I replaced
Speaker 8: all my bowls and using glass. We have some plastic glasses.
Speaker 8: That's we're out on the deck, so that bread and chatter.
Speaker 8: We replaced our utensil with silicone. I'm going to do
Speaker 8: the best that I can within my budget and what
Speaker 8: I can actually change now when I go out to dinner,
Speaker 8: I know, I don't have any control over how they
Speaker 8: fix my food or store my food, so I have
Speaker 8: to accept, Okay, I want to take one, but at
Speaker 8: least when I eat at home, I try to do
Speaker 8: as much as I can. I don't try to think
Speaker 8: about it too much. When I work for the Department bag,
Speaker 8: I actually went to a slaughterhouse, and sometimes that will
Speaker 8: turn you off from eating meat if you actually watch
Speaker 8: the entire process. But I'm like, I like steak too much,
Speaker 8: So okay, So that's kind of how I try to
Speaker 8: try it.
Speaker 3: There are legally allowed stuff in our food. I'm looking
Speaker 3: at some of the worst ones here. Brominated vegetable oil,
Speaker 3: potassium bromate, propyle parabin red dye number three, titanium dioxide,
Speaker 3: all legal, all known to be detrimental.
Speaker 5: To human beings.
Speaker 3: How is it that it remains okay for the continued
Speaker 3: use of stuff that we have proven it is not healthy?
Speaker 7: You have asked a very interesting question.
Speaker 3: How is it that it remains okay for the continued
Speaker 3: use of stuff that we have proven.
Speaker 5: Is not healthy?
Speaker 8: You have asked a very interesting question that is so
Speaker 8: confusing and perplexing. Let me take an example of the
Speaker 8: red dye number three. This is a dye a coloring
Speaker 8: that is used to color candies such as the red
Speaker 8: Skittles or.
Speaker 7: Peeps, et cetera.
Speaker 8: And it is a dye that has been shown to
Speaker 8: be harmful. The FDA actually banned that dye out of
Speaker 8: cosmetic products such as lipstick thirty years ago. However, it
Speaker 8: has been allowed to be used as a food coloring. Now,
Speaker 8: if you get skittles from the US skittles from Europe,
Speaker 8: Skittles from Europe does.
Speaker 7: Not have red dye number three.
Speaker 8: Skittles from the US does they use like fruit dyes
Speaker 8: and fruit extracts to color the skittles the red skittles
Speaker 8: in the Europe.
Speaker 7: And if you ask the manufacturer, and this was in
Speaker 7: our article.
Speaker 8: Too, they would say, well, the Europeans are more concerned
Speaker 8: about this. United States people really don't care about it.
Speaker 8: And so that's how you can have two different markets,
Speaker 8: which I don't understand. It seemed like it'd be more
Speaker 8: economic to have the same products here in the EU,
Speaker 8: but you have two different markets. And so your governor
Speaker 8: actually banned red dye number three and three other chemical
Speaker 8: contaminants not titanium dioxide.
Speaker 7: In California, because.
Speaker 8: We could not get any movement with the federal government,
Speaker 8: which would be our Food and Drug Administration.
Speaker 7: Okay, So you.
Speaker 8: Have manufacturers that say it's okay, and you have the
Speaker 8: FDA which is very slow in regulating certain harmful contaminants,
Speaker 8: even with pressure from US like Consumer Reports and other
Speaker 8: consumer groups to try to get these chemicals out of
Speaker 8: our food.
Speaker 7: And so how's it allowed? Was allowed because a.
Speaker 8: Long, long, long time ago it was allowed with less
Speaker 8: scientific and public health information as to how harmful it
Speaker 8: could be. And it just takes a long time to
Speaker 8: get our federal government to move and get rid of
Speaker 8: this stuff from our food. So I hope that answered
Speaker 8: your question.
Speaker 5: Yeah, unfortunately it does.
Speaker 6: So the question that's backs into that question, then how
Speaker 6: much pushback do you get? So if I'm a manufacturer
Speaker 6: of this stuff and I have big money, I've got
Speaker 6: lobbyists up to wazoo, They're saying this, I'm not going
Speaker 6: to do anything. Look, I'm ghostling it. Do you get
Speaker 6: how many times a week do you get pushed back?
Speaker 6: A month or year do you get pushed back from anybody?
Speaker 8: So, any major story that is really trying to address
Speaker 8: a particular contaminant in food. I mean, let's use this
Speaker 8: as an example. I told you what the manufacturers respond was.
Speaker 8: But there was also like a not a smear campaign,
Speaker 8: but someone said, oh, you're trying to get rid of
Speaker 8: Skittles in the United States, and.
Speaker 7: We're like, no, we're not right.
Speaker 8: And so many times what they will say is we
Speaker 8: have a safe amount of red dy number three in
Speaker 8: our red skittles.
Speaker 7: The problem is that.
Speaker 8: I see is that are you using the most up
Speaker 8: to date, reliable scientific information that really shows whether red
Speaker 8: dye number three is safe or not? And if you're not,
Speaker 8: if you're relying on the data from twenty thirty years ago,
Speaker 8: then I'm not sure you're telling the truth that it's
Speaker 8: still safe. Maybe you are, but can we see some
Speaker 8: testing data or some public health data that will tell
Speaker 8: us that.
Speaker 7: It actually is safe.
Speaker 8: Obviously the European countries did not think so, because they
Speaker 8: demand that you get red dy number three out of
Speaker 8: their red skittles. So maybe they know something that we
Speaker 8: are not accepting over here. I don't know what that
Speaker 8: explanation is.
Speaker 6: So there's well, along with that, none of the fouly
Speaker 6: levels exceed standard set by US and European regulators. So
Speaker 6: that's one statement, and then the next statement of scientists
Speaker 6: can't confirm a level that is safe. So now we
Speaker 6: don't how much of this crap you can eat, but
Speaker 6: we've determined that the level you can eat, that the
Speaker 6: level you can eat the.
Speaker 4: Safe Right now, if you haven't determined the level, then
Speaker 4: how can you tell me?
Speaker 3: What if I eat nine hundred bags of Skittles a week,
Speaker 3: up my my exposure.
Speaker 6: Again, probably not good, but we haven't determined that that's
Speaker 6: on safe. So it's at a game that's being played
Speaker 6: that we haven't determined the safe level.
Speaker 4: But here's a level.
Speaker 8: Well, think of it this way. Let's take lead in
Speaker 8: baby food for instance. The people who are really really
Speaker 8: on the food safety side baby safety side will say
Speaker 8: there is no safe level lead in baby food, right,
Speaker 8: But it may be that the data will show you
Speaker 8: that we can bring it down, you know, as close
Speaker 8: to zero as possible, but we can't get it to
Speaker 8: zero because of the way we grow our food and
Speaker 8: process our food. So this lowest, lowest level may be
Speaker 8: the best that we can get. And so maybe that's
Speaker 8: the level that we're going to have to claim. Now
Speaker 8: I will say that consumer reports, other consumer groups we
Speaker 8: advocate for a much lower level that is either already
Speaker 8: been set by a regulatory agency or has been suggested
Speaker 8: by others. We think that food safe level should be
Speaker 8: lower than is usually popular or is usually regulated right now.
Speaker 8: And so what you'll see if you look at our articles,
Speaker 8: for instance, we'll accept the Prop sixty five levels from
Speaker 8: California and say they're much more healthier than safety base
Speaker 8: than the federal levels.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 8: And so when we do our analysis, we try to
Speaker 8: take the safest level that we can find in the
Speaker 8: literature or Prop sixty five or other scientists that look
Speaker 8: at this and say this is the level it should be,
Speaker 8: and it's usually much lower than what a federal regulatory
Speaker 8: level is.
Speaker 3: So if people, if if if the electorate, the consumer
Speaker 3: really got their act together and said, we want to
Speaker 3: advocate create the pathway for these things to become either
Speaker 3: abouish or you know, greatly.
Speaker 5: What is what is the way? Is it? Is it
Speaker 5: boycotting products, is.
Speaker 3: It, you know, focusing on certain companies or industries. Is
Speaker 3: it making it a bigger issue among our elected representatives?
Speaker 3: What what is the what's the best pathway to get
Speaker 3: a positive change here?
Speaker 5: That doesn't seem to becoming any other way.
Speaker 7: Well, I think it's going to be multi level.
Speaker 8: One when consumers are informed and knowledgeable and they can
Speaker 8: get information from.
Speaker 7: Us from other consumer groups. Vote with your dollars.
Speaker 8: Okay, if we show you that macron in cheese A
Speaker 8: has less stylates than macro and cheese B than by a. Second,
Speaker 8: is as an informed consumer right the companies and say
Speaker 8: I saw.
Speaker 7: This article in Consumer Reports.
Speaker 8: It said, you know your MACRONI and cheese is terrible
Speaker 8: in the area of tholates.
Speaker 7: What are you going to do about it?
Speaker 8: So become an engaged and inform and active consumer. Third
Speaker 8: thing is in every story that we have where we're
Speaker 8: finding something, we have a link so you can join
Speaker 8: a petition or we will like let's say for thoalates
Speaker 8: and food contact surfaces, you can sign our petition and
Speaker 8: we take that to the FDA, and we take that
Speaker 8: to these manufacturers and say you need to do something
Speaker 8: about that. Fourth, write your congress people right and say
Speaker 8: you represent me in the state of California, you need
Speaker 8: to do better.
Speaker 7: Fifth, what we.
Speaker 8: Found is that in sometimes at the state level you
Speaker 8: can have more success than you can at the federal level.
Speaker 4: Luck with that, by the way, before we go, don't
Speaker 4: wash your chicken.
Speaker 7: Don't wash your chicken.
Speaker 5: What don't wash your chicken, don't wash your chicken.
Speaker 8: So again, if you look at the data from the CDC,
Speaker 8: et cetera, if you wash your chicken. Number one, you're
Speaker 8: not going to get any harmful bacteria such as salmonilla,
Speaker 8: cample bacter off of it because the bacteria go down
Speaker 8: into the pores of the skin and washing the surface
Speaker 8: does nothing. Number Two, when you're spraying that chicken in
Speaker 8: the sink, you're creating a big cloud of mist that
Speaker 8: may contain salmonilla in it. And if you have your
Speaker 8: salad greens next to the sink, it's going to fall
Speaker 8: into your salad greens. You don't cook them. Cooking is
Speaker 8: a kill step. You can get food poisoning from that.
Speaker 8: And number three, peop we're not as clean as they
Speaker 8: really think they are. There's a study out there where
Speaker 8: they looked at how many times have people washed their
Speaker 8: hands between fixing the chicken fixing the salad. The numbers
Speaker 8: did not call inside. They said they washed their hands
Speaker 8: as much. But if you look at the video, they
Speaker 8: washed their hands if at all.
Speaker 4: Down here.
Speaker 8: So there's just no way to really wash your chicken safely.
Speaker 8: Even though we got a lot of fire on that one,
Speaker 8: I got a lot of flat where people say, I'm
Speaker 8: going to wash my chicken. My grandma washed my chicken,
Speaker 8: my mama wash my chicken. You don't know what you
Speaker 8: talking about.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, did I hear wash your chicken?
Speaker 3: But I've actually think I read recently about washing your
Speaker 3: chicken with soap. Because no, I don't have to tell
Speaker 3: you what I.
Speaker 4: Can't. Okay, so wait a minute, Wait a minute.
Speaker 6: So jeans, you bring how much chicken to make and
Speaker 6: you just throw in the oven.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 7: So what I do is I unveil it in the
Speaker 7: sink as gently as part.
Speaker 4: You unfil you unfail.
Speaker 5: And I take it out and you put me with
Speaker 5: it in the shower.
Speaker 4: He's unal music play.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 8: I take that plastic bag of that plastic wrap. I
Speaker 8: immediately put it in the trash can. If there's anything
Speaker 8: like sometimes you see that slimy stuff on chicken cow
Speaker 8: and I wipe it all and you.
Speaker 4: Yell out driving driving it down right, Okay, it's padding.
Speaker 7: You're not you don't want to understanding.
Speaker 8: Scared like crazy, you put it in your roasting pan,
Speaker 8: you season it, you cover it up, and then you
Speaker 8: make sure you wash your hands and you clean.
Speaker 3: That entire circe after today was warm soap and wah oh,
Speaker 3: now suddenly soap is okay on my chicken. No good, Listen,
Speaker 3: I know food is your area. I'm gonna ask one
Speaker 3: off the beaten. This is going to be like asking
Speaker 3: about the Kennedy assassination. Fifteen years ago. My wife and
Speaker 3: I brought a person into our house to go through
Speaker 3: and electromagnetic waves because the cell phone was changing brain
Speaker 3: waves in the human brain. For a minute of holding
Speaker 3: the phone by your head would change your brainwave activity
Speaker 3: for thirty minutes. It was disaster. The cell phones are
Speaker 3: going to ruin the world. Put them down, don't use them,
Speaker 3: keep them three feet away. Anything anything on the cell
Speaker 3: phones anything.
Speaker 7: I haven't seen anything, but stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 8: There has been some discussion. Is that is there anything
Speaker 8: for us to test in that area? Because I do
Speaker 8: have product safety under my here you go, remit, yeah, I.
Speaker 7: Just acquired them last year.
Speaker 8: I'm not as good as product safety person as a
Speaker 8: food safety person, but I'm learning quickly.
Speaker 6: Good And if you if you, if if it's not
Speaker 6: a problem for you if you can take also have
Speaker 6: a dish wash, the dishwasher hallway and maybe possibly refrigerator hallway.
Speaker 4: We'll get back town.
Speaker 3: A couple of I have a have a brand new dishwasher.
Speaker 3: It does a nice clean. It doesn't dry a thing.
Speaker 6: Doesn't do They get pissed off James when you go,
Speaker 6: I'm thinking of buying our hair dryer.
Speaker 8: I does have a.
Speaker 5: Pool here that breaks every year every year.
Speaker 7: And I don't know. I mean, I'm in the I'm
Speaker 7: in the market for a car.
Speaker 8: You know, we have our huge car testing track up
Speaker 8: and yeah, that's one of the biggest issues that we
Speaker 8: publish as cars.
Speaker 7: And so I can call anybody up and said.
Speaker 5: You know, we got your number, James, information right, and I'd.
Speaker 7: Rather you buy a membership to some reports.
Speaker 5: Let me tell you something.
Speaker 3: This is I promise you I have never not had
Speaker 3: a membership some reports. My parents had it and I
Speaker 3: continue to have it this very day. It's it's a
Speaker 3: fantastic un Then we should know about the dishwasher.
Speaker 5: Thing we bought based on the consumer.
Speaker 6: Recommended the black dot with a half thing in it
Speaker 6: or the red dot with the zero around it.
Speaker 4: By the way, can you just put.
Speaker 8: Without that it's Chevron's Ron is not the dots anymore.
Speaker 8: That changed about seven years ago.
Speaker 6: James Rogers, he's the director of food Safety Research and Testing.
Speaker 6: Thanks Consumer Reports. It is one of the best makeing
Speaker 6: the Cools magazine because also they're completely you're completely independent.
Speaker 6: When you're testing toilets with the balls. You got to
Speaker 6: buy the toilets and the balls, right.
Speaker 7: You would we go to home People or Lowells or wherever,
Speaker 7: and we get and you'd.
Speaker 4: Buy it, and then you give the report, and then
Speaker 4: you get pushed back from lobbyists.
Speaker 5: We're talking ping pong balls, tennis.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, you went to toilet marbles.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 4: Can you say a phone?
Speaker 6: Send them some photos, will you, James? Or he gets
Speaker 6: off my back with the toilet and the balls thing. James,
Speaker 6: thank you and I apologie. I apologize, No, thank you
Speaker 6: for coming on. We really appreciate it, and thanks.
Speaker 7: For it was great and it was fun. Thank you
Speaker 7: for having me.
Speaker 5: Well, let me tell you very learned man. He's very
Speaker 5: nice man. He does very important work.
Speaker 3: I'm washing my chicken and if my wife insists, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna wash it with soap. And you know what else,
Speaker 3: when you come over, you're gonna eat it.
Speaker 5: What do you think of that?
Speaker 6: I'm no longer coming to your house because there's a
Speaker 6: cloud of uncertain there's no cloud coming out.
Speaker 5: You know something I never heard of that don't watch.
Speaker 4: He had the guy on for a reason. And then
Speaker 4: let me tell me we're working. And then he tells you.
Speaker 4: One of the most important things in there is why close.
Speaker 3: If he said I should jump off a roof, I
Speaker 3: should jump off a pretty much. I don't have to
Speaker 3: do everything, he says.
Speaker 4: He's not the boss. And man, you know what I love.
Speaker 4: It's how you embrace You embrace the new information and change.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I question.
Speaker 3: I'm a question buddy. Nothing wrong with being a questioner.
Speaker 3: He said to Salmon that I could go into the pores.
Speaker 3: What if I take the skin off, if I if
Speaker 3: I opened it, if I unveil my you know what
Speaker 3: you did?
Speaker 5: I remove all the skin. Now there's no pores. You know,
Speaker 5: I know you?
Speaker 4: You and DA turn your kitshen into an operating.
Speaker 5: First of all, the whole thing is in the vest,
Speaker 5: so we don't cook.
Speaker 4: Turn your thing into an operating theater. What seats above
Speaker 4: and you'll deal with the.
Speaker 5: Chick style scrub scrub.
Speaker 6: My god, we have so many places. We're dead, We're dead.
Speaker 6: Do you know any plan containers we have? Of course
Speaker 6: you have to say today every everything plastic goes out. Well,
Speaker 6: you know this is a big thing for that. She's
Speaker 6: really freaked out by this, and I understand that.
Speaker 5: I am now freaked up by and I you know,
Speaker 5: here I am thinking, oh, I'm good.
Speaker 3: I'm using the microwave plastic stuff to make my oat meal,
Speaker 3: and I'm going I'm killing.
Speaker 4: I look on the bottom and says microwave safe. You
Speaker 4: put it in the thing.
Speaker 5: Micro it is, it's safe for the microwave.
Speaker 4: For me, only part of it melted into the egg.
Speaker 4: I do this every day. I'm dying. I'm dead. I'm dead.
Speaker 4: I'm dead. I'm dead. Spatula, my spatula is going.
Speaker 3: But but you know, they don't know yet. I think
Speaker 3: they don't know. We don't have the research yet on me.
Speaker 3: You know, we were joking about that, the finding it
Speaker 3: in your penal tissue. But okay, is it bad?
Speaker 4: Lari Larry?
Speaker 6: I think you know we were looking at merchandise for
Speaker 6: items to start selling hatchlic I think we do silicon
Speaker 6: spatulists specialists I have.
Speaker 3: I want to go to David, but I have a
Speaker 3: feeling we're going to get more information that I'm not
Speaker 3: going to enjoy.
Speaker 4: And he's going to be wearing a fet and he's
Speaker 4: what's happening?
Speaker 2: Where do we go?
Speaker 9: Well, actually, my biggest concern is what if you're you're
Speaker 9: cooking and then somebody comes out and you have your
Speaker 9: your salmonilla cloud, right, and then someone comes out of
Speaker 9: the bathroom and then the fecal.
Speaker 5: Cloud, which we've met before.
Speaker 3: Do they cancel each other out when salmonella meets veicle
Speaker 3: it's super.
Speaker 4: Cloud, you know, supercloud? Do you put them in the
Speaker 4: toilet like balls in.
Speaker 5: Balls in the toilet?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Well I was going to test that in my toilet,
Speaker 5: but Landlord saying no, that wasn't it.
Speaker 9: Anyway, I have a recycling quiz for you, because we've
Speaker 9: been talking about plastics and trying to keep him out
Speaker 9: of the food and the water and the chickens and
Speaker 9: the fish.
Speaker 5: So here you go.
Speaker 2: Recycling quiz.
Speaker 9: What percentage of recyclables in the home are put out
Speaker 9: in bins?
Speaker 5: What percentage of potential recyclables in the home?
Speaker 9: Yes, exactly, so people use in the home, get in
Speaker 9: the bin. A fifty percent, B twenty one percent or
Speaker 9: C four percent.
Speaker 4: It's not it's not fIF see I say one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: You go with because it gets put out. It isn't
Speaker 4: getting right.
Speaker 6: Yeah right, I'm guessing because it's it's the Jason Alexander
Speaker 6: school of it's too low.
Speaker 5: It can't be.
Speaker 9: That's so it's four percent incorrect, it's B twenty one percent.
Speaker 5: I was going to say that, Ye tuk myself.
Speaker 2: Out of it.
Speaker 4: You're playing for a woman in New Jersey. You gotta
Speaker 4: go with the gut.
Speaker 9: One point five million tons of rigid plastics are collected
Speaker 9: each year.
Speaker 2: What percentage of that is turned into something else?
Speaker 5: No numbers? A A that was dramatic, boss A.
Speaker 9: Seventy five percent, B fifty one percent or C one percent?
Speaker 3: Seventy five percent, fifty one percent or one percent?
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go withy the schmock.
Speaker 5: I'm going in the middle again. Fifty one percent, fifty
Speaker 5: one percent, Peter.
Speaker 4: I'll just just for just for just giggles, here we
Speaker 4: go one percent correct with one.
Speaker 5: Percent to see, I don't understand. We we send twenty
Speaker 5: one percent.
Speaker 6: We were in.
Speaker 4: We washed chicken across a cloud. We're incompetent people.
Speaker 9: How much plastic waste does the US ship overseas A
Speaker 9: one million metric tons, b two hundred million metric tons
Speaker 9: or ce none. The US banned the exportation of recyclements.
Speaker 4: I believe it's gonna be so wrong.
Speaker 5: See now I'm triple.
Speaker 3: I believe it is an ungodlin number of like two
Speaker 3: hundred million tons, and I.
Speaker 4: Believe we got nailed and they said we're not taking
Speaker 4: it anymore.
Speaker 5: So it's zero, it's actually a one million. Now.
Speaker 9: The interesting thing though, is, and this is worldwide, this
Speaker 9: is not just the US. Four hundred million metric tons
Speaker 9: of plastic are created each year, and and this is
Speaker 9: a separate number, three hundred and fifty million metric tons
Speaker 9: are thrown.
Speaker 4: Away each year.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, David, thank you. Wow, I'm so depressed.
Speaker 3: The minute I get home, I'm going to the pool table,
Speaker 3: I'm gathering up the one through nine bowl, putting it
Speaker 3: in the toilet and see what goes.
Speaker 4: Do have a good time with that. And I got
Speaker 4: a good plumber for you. Everybody. Thank you for joining
Speaker 4: us on really no, really, no, Really.
Speaker 2: There's another episode of Really No Really. He comes to
Speaker 2: a close. I know you're wondering.
Speaker 1: Sure, we may be unintentionally ingesting some odd things, but
Speaker 1: what are some of the strangest things human beings have
Speaker 1: eaten on purpose? Well I'll serve that up in a moment,
Speaker 1: but first let's thank our guest doctor James Rogers. You
Speaker 1: can find the good doctor on LinkedIn where he is
Speaker 1: James E. Rogers, PhD, and his work and writings appear
Speaker 1: on his website Consumer reports dot org. Find all pertinent
Speaker 1: links in our show notes, our little show hangs out
Speaker 1: on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and threads at Really No Really podcast,
Speaker 1: And of course you can share your thoughts and feedback
Speaker 1: with us online at reallynoreally dot com. If you have
Speaker 1: a really some amazing factor story that boggles your mind,
Speaker 1: share it with us, and if we use it, we
Speaker 1: will send you a little gift.
Speaker 2: Nothing life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts.
Speaker 1: Check out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe
Speaker 1: button and take that bell so you're updated when we
Speaker 1: release new videos and episodes, which we do each Tuesday.
Speaker 1: So listen and follow us on the iHeart Radio app
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now
Speaker 1: the answer to the question what are some of the
Speaker 1: weirdest things people have intentionally eaten?
Speaker 5: A lady named.
Speaker 1: Adel Edwards likes to eat the foam cushions of sofas
Speaker 1: and couches.
Speaker 2: She ingests about a pillow sized portion each week by
Speaker 2: snacking on tiny pieces several times a day, sort of
Speaker 2: like marshmallows that you sit on.
Speaker 1: Vaudeville performer Chaz Chase made a name for himself by
Speaker 1: eating lit cigarettes and cigars. He claims to have eaten
Speaker 1: thousands of them over his twenty year vaudeville career.
Speaker 2: I guess because he couldn't juggle.
Speaker 1: Videos reveal there is an unnamed man in China who
Speaker 1: apparently eats live bees, and if you can find out
Speaker 1: his name, I'm sure Peto.
Speaker 2: Will pay handsomely.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy, Leon Sampson won a twenty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: bet by eating an entire car.
Speaker 2: He ground up chunks of the car and mixed it
Speaker 2: with soup or mashed potato.
Speaker 1: No single piece was bigger than a grain of rice,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, in the seventies they.
Speaker 2: Hadn't invented smart cars. Yet magician Todd ro Ubens is
Speaker 2: famous for eating light bulbs. What's the secret to this trick, though, you.
Speaker 1: May ask, Well, a magician never reveals his secrets in
Speaker 1: this case, because there isn't one.
Speaker 2: He's actually eating light bulbs. And lastly, a man.
Speaker 1: Named Michelle Latito is the only person to ever eat
Speaker 1: an entire airplane. It took him two years from nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight to nineteen eighty to eat a two seater Cessna.
Speaker 1: Tiny little bits every time, but all of them either metal, glass, plastic,
Speaker 1: or rubber. It earned him a bona fide world record
Speaker 1: and hopefully a lifetime of frequent flyer miles. But in
Speaker 1: all seriousness, pika is a very real eating disorder, most
Speaker 1: often affecting children, in which the sufferer is compelled to
Speaker 1: eat items not meant for human consumption. And if you
Speaker 1: know someone seemingly suffering from this, please consult a healthcare professional.
Speaker 1: Really No, Really is a production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment.