Students Studies Toxicity of Plastic Food Wrap

Three years later, with encouragement from her high school science teacher and the cooperation of Jon Wilkes at the National Center for Toxicological Research, Claire set out to test her hypothesis. The research center let her use its facilities to perform her experiments, which involved microwaving plastic wrap in virgin olive oil.

Throughout her junior and senior years, Claire continued her experiments. An article in Options magazine reported that “her analysis found that DEHA was migrating into the oil at between 200 parts and 500 parts per million. The FDA standard is 0.05 parts per billion.”

Claire’s dramatic results have been published in science journals. She received the American Chemical Society’s top science prize for students during her junior year and fourth place at the International Science and Engineering Fair (Fort Worth, Texas) as a senior.

Claire’s experimental results suggest that heating plastic-wrapped foods in the microwave is dangerous, and that it’s safer to use tempered glass or a ceramic container instead. For the record, a study reported in the June 1998 issue of Consumer Reports suggested that toxins may migrate into food from plastic wrap at room temperature too. So the best choice may be to avoid plastic food wraps altogether.