Is it true that putting plastic/Styrofoam in the microwave gives off cancerous fumes?

I heard that if you heat styrofoam, it releases stuff that it’s made out of into your food, so it’s not very good for your health when you eat the food. I’m not sure if the styrofoam gives off cancerous fumes though, but it sounds possible. However, I always heat the cup noodles in the styrofoam cup. Nothing has happened to me yet, that I’m aware of :P So I guess it’s just whatever you wanna do. Hope this helps :o

Almost everything these days causes cancer (did you know that the caramel colouring they put in pop causes cancer, too?) … you can’t live in fear.

On an old TV show they took a group of kids. They told one child a short story and asked him to retell the story to the next child and that one to the next. After the story was retold a number of times it was completely different from the original story. Health claims like this often take a similar route. An obscure research paper is presented, then the info is summarized and published in a trade journal, then the info is summarized and put in a popular health magazine, then the info is summarized and distributed in a chain letter. Plastics themselves are made of large and fairly stable molecules. The issue here is chemicals added to plastics to change its physical qualities. These chemicals can leech into food. Since chemical reactions generally occur more quickly with heat, cooking foods in the microwave can cause more of these chemicals to leech into our foods. One chemical in particular has been in the news Bisphenol A or BPA. Several countries have banned its use in food containers and many people avoid it just to be safe. Other plasticizers are being studied as potential health threats as well. Personally I store and use glass containers as much as I can. The concern over plasticizers is one of my considerations but even before that I used glass because it is durable and doesn’t get stained by foods. Currently polyethylene and polypropylene are not believed to leech dangerous chemicals into food. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), polystyrene (Styrofoam is expanded polystyrene) , and polycarbonate are iffy since they are known to leech controversial chemicals into food.

“Microwave safe” styrofoam/plastics which is marked on the container, is safe. However most that you get from fast food places are not and can melt or leech PCB’s into the food. It is recommended that using glass containers in a microwave is the safest.

YES! It is very very bad for you. Never heat something in plastic. The plastic does give of chemicals that will be absorbed by your food. Also try to avoid freezing in plastic and storing oily foods in plastic. There are more than enough info on the web concerning this health risk.