A.P.P.L.E
It’s all about sharing ideas and thoughts in various aspects… |
Chopstick Alert!!
Author: Apple | Category: Health
When eating out, do you prefer they serve you with the disposable chopsticks or the normal plastic/wooden chopsticks? Many think that the disposable chopsticks are more hygiene because after used, they are normally thrown.
How clean are these chopsticks?
Are they safe for our health?
How many bamboo trees need to be chopped?
No matter how true is this, let’s take a look at the following article to let yourself uncover the truth behind those disposable bamboo chopsticks!
Brief information on production of disposable chopstick
1. Cut down bamboo trees from South East Asia country.
2. Production of Central of Vietnam.
3. Bleach using sulfur (硫磺) and Hydrogen Peroxide (双氧水). (Not for disinfection purpose)
4. Drying process.
5. Packing ready to be exported to Taiwan, Japan…
6. Shipping
*It takes 1 month to export these chopstick from the factory to Taiwan. Meanwhile, the chopstick is exposed to rat and cockroaches.*
7. Wrapping process without any disinfection.
Upon arrival in Taiwan, these chopstick are sent to small factory to be wrapped without any disinfection process before sending to restaurants.
And…directly send to customer’s mouth.
There are thousands and millions of “monkeys” residing inside these chopsticks.
Can you see it?
Monkey faces inside the chopstick.
The leftover from the chemical (sulfur and hydrogen peroxide) will stay inside these holes until you use them.
Conclusion from an experiment:
- Soak the chopstick in water for one week - it sinks.
- Plant green pea in the soaked water, resulted longer growing process, it stop growing when reach 5-6cm and finally die.
- Smoke from burning these chopstick is tested to be acidic.
Carbon dioxide found in the bamboo chopstick.
- Avoid using disposable chopstick which is very white as it is not the original color of the wood. Chopstick that is too white may have been bleach excessively.
- It is advised to soak the disposable chopstick in hot water b4 use to release carbon dioxide.
- It is best not to use these chopstick for bbq, and leave in the soup as it tend to release more carbon dioxide.
Possible consequences of using disposable chopstick.
- Suffer difficult breathing, vomit, diarrhoea etc. and loss of calcium due to sulfur.
- Suffer Asthma and difficult in breathing.
- Sulfur contains heavy metal chemical such as lead and mercury. Such heavy metal can accumulate in our body and can cause lead poisoning or mercury poisoning.
- Lymph cancer.
If you can’t avoid using disposal chopsticks…
It is suggested to smell the chopstick b4 use. If any sour smell, possibly it contain CO2. And soak them in warm and hot water for 2 to 3 min to reduce the CO2.
It is still best to bring along your own chopstick.
By continuing consuming disposable chopstick..
- A 20-year old tree could produce 3000-4000 pairs of chopstick
- Taiwanese use more than 100billion pairs
- Which means 29 million of trees are being cut every year
Disposable chopstick affect our environment.
Is it possible that Taiwan will recycle and reuse the used chopstick?
As reported by reliable sources, it was found that the disposable chopstick are being recycle by reusing sulfur & Hydrogen Peroxide.
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My two cents:
Although this is an experiment/ a survey conducted by Taiwanese, I think there’s not much difference for the disposable chopstick in our local restaurants or dining place. Do you think you will bring along your own chopstick? Or prefer to soaked the disposable chopstick in hot water before you use? Or simply don’t even bother about this issue? lol, I think most of us will choose the last. XD
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This is interesting… I prefer disposable chopstick. More hygenic…
yes, i totally agree with you.. but when having take-a-way meal, it’s more convenient to use disposable chopsticks, no need to wash… but still, i use fork more… hahaha.. glad that you share this info, everyone should know about this..
i recently read about bad things about disposable chopsticks on tv/newspapers, which change the way i think about them.
I know disposable chopstick is very convenient for hawker stalls and outdoor picnic, but i think we should avoid using it as much as possible.
XD~ after my SPM, I go try d experiment.
Curiosity kill d cat~ meow~
It’s true, I tried it years ago, when I first heard about it… It really is bleached. Well, when I told my friends about it… they laugh at me, but if you do believe, come on, save yourself! smiLes
Of course it’s not a instant effect thing, will effect you over time LOL.
If you insist to use it, maybe just when you take dry food? No soup please. Hahaha
@curryegg,
before I saw this article, I thought it’s more hygienic too…but wow just imagine the chemical goes into our body…
@LeeChien,
You’re welcome…anyway this kind of chopstick is really becoming very common in many hawker stall, or even restaurant.
@jayhan,
You’re right. Or maybe we should start bringing along our own chopstick.
@Renge,
I also think of trying the experiment. I brought back a pair of disposal chopstick from Singapore.
@gLaDieZz,
Hey gladiezz, good tips. “No soup please”.
Thanks for posting this. I have always hated disposable chopsticks. They are short, smelly, and have a rough feel against the lips. However, I never have brought my own. I will begin doing that.
Just FYI. Any wood product entering the United States on a container cargo ship is subject to mandatory fumigation by a very powerful gas. The fumigation helps to prevent insects from infecting US wood supplies. If I can save 29 million bamboo trees and avoid the “monkies” in the chopsticks, sounds like a good idea.
@Adam,
I’m glad you find this useful. Thanks for the additional information about the wood product that enter the United States. Hope you can help to spread this discovery. =)
I hv soaked d chopsticks(around 12pc) for 3 days only.
pui~~~ my toilet smell like shit~~~
d water is so cloudy~~~
Oh wow..I have always wanted to do the experiment myself. I even brought back the chopstick from Singapore. I’ll try it out myself someday. Maybe take video too.
Hello! I’m writing a paper about the dangers of chopsticks and how it harms the environment. I was wondering where you found all of the steps it takes to make these chopsticks so that I can include them in my essay. If you could e-mail me ASAP that would be very helpful
Apple, what’s the result of your experiment? Please update us here in Singapore. Thanks.
@motey,
Hi there. I haven’t do any experiment on this. But my friend did it. She even took some pictures of it and show the results. However she wrote it in Chinese, you can read it here. If you can’t understand Chinese, do let me know and I’ll translate for you.
Yup, I can’t understand chinese characters. But as far as I can see from the pics, it doesn’t seem to have a negative result.
Anyway, I’ll appreciate if you can translate. Thanks a lot.
Hi motey, now you can read it in English version here.