How2Day: Problems With Melamine Tableware

A chemical used to make a number of items, including plastics, pesticides and fertilizers, melamine is also found in tableware items, like utensils, cups and specialized plates for children. Although melamine alone has little toxicity, when combined with other elements, like cyanuric acid, melamine can create a highly toxic compound that can result in illness or even death.

Melamine left over after the chemical process to form or create a piece of tableware, can migrate from the plate to your food, but according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, melamine tableware is still safe. Melamine does not migrate from the tableware into most foods. The one exception is acidic foods, like orange juice or tomato sauce, which show slight melamine migration under normal conditions, but well under acceptable levels. Foods should not be heated or microwaved on melamine tableware, according to the FDA. When foods, especially acidic foods, are heated to high temperatures above 160 degrees Fahrenheit, melamine migration increases.

According to Gulf News, the city of Dubai in 2007 found that some types of plastic tableware sold as melamine tableware within the city actually contained urea formaldehyde instead of melamine formaldehyde. Unlike melamine formaldehyde, urea formaldehyde mixes with food and causes serious health problems, like digestive and respiratory issues. Urea formaldehyde plates have not been found in the United States or Europe, as of November 2010.

Many types of plastic tableware are recyclable, but due to the chemical process used to create the plates, melamine tableware is not one of them. Melamine tableware is not environmentally friendly and, like most plastics, takes a long time to break down by itself. To give you an estimate on how long that is, a typical plastic garbage bag can take anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years to decompose.

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