Feb. 28, 2025

TOXIC KITCHEN ALERT! Patrick Gutfield EXPOSES the DEADLY Cancer-Causing POISON Lurking in Your Utensil Drawer + Listener Mail

Show Notes
Transcript

Patrick Gutfield REVEALS the TERRIFYING truth that Big Plastic doesn't want you to know! Your BLACK SPATULAS contain DEADLY chemicals that can LOWER YOUR CHILD'S IQ and make you FOUR TIMES more likely to DIE OF CANCER! Plus, EXPLOSIVE letters from viewers expose MISSISSIPPI'S shocking plan to RENAME the Gulf of Mexico, and the STRANGEST Oscar nominations that left Hollywood SPEECHLESS! Scientists found these toxic chemicals in 100% of breast milk samples tested - YOUR FAMILY could be next!

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Callaroga Shark Media.

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From Washington, DC, where we do listener mail when we

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want to pre tape on Fridays. This is Ballot Friday's

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off in hilarious content. That's the podcast equivalent of Boobs

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and a cheese steak.

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Let's hit this. Hi. I'm Patrick Gutfield.

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And there was this big panic last year when a

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study came out saying black plastic kitchen utensils are filled.

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With flame retardants.

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You know those things in your kitchen drawer, the spatulas

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you use to flip pancakes. Apparently they're just teeming with

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chemicals from recycled electronics. Who knew my sushi tray might

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have been a Samsung galaxy in a past life.

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Everyone went nuts.

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News outlets were telling people to throw away their black spatulas,

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causing a nationwide kitchen utensil crisis. Martha Stewart was found

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weeping in a Williams Sonoma. But then plot twist, the

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researchers made a time math error. They said the EPA's

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safe level for these chemicals was forty two thousand nanograms

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a day, when actually it's four hundred and twenty thousand nanograms.

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Just a casual decimal point error. That's ten times off.

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That's the kind of math mistake I used to make

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on my tax returns before the IRS sent me those

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friendly letters. Now you might think, great, my black spatula

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is safe after all, but the experts say we're all

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missing the point. The problem isn't whether your spatula exceeds

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some arbitrary safe level, it's whether that level should be

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considered safe at all. These flame retardants have been linked

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to reduced IQ in children, higher cancer rates, and thyroid disease.

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One study found that a tenfold increase in the exposure

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for pregnant women led to a three point seven IQ

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drop in their children. So you might want to rethink

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flipping those burgers with your favorite black spatulo while pregnant,

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unless you're hoping for a child who won't question your authority.

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People with the highest flame retardant levels were four times

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more likely to die of cancer compared to those with

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the lowest levels. Four times. That's not a small difference.

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That's the difference between dying once and dying four times,

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and let me tell you, dying once is plenty. The

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frustrating part is that these chemicals were largely phased out

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years ago, except in electronics, and now those electronics are

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being recycled into black kitchen items. It's the circle of

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life if the circle of life involved Simba being ground

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up and turned into hyena food. The researchers say the

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EPA's safe level is an old number that was last

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evaluated almost twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, that's when

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people thought frosted tips were a good hairstyle choice and

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jar jar binks was the future of cinema. Maybe we

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should update our chemical safety standards more often than we

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update windows. And here's the kicker. The current system only

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evaluates chemicals one at a time, but in real life

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we're exposed to dozens of different toxic substances every day.

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It's the chemical avengers assembling in your bloodstream to wreak havoc. Okay,

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time for listener mail. Our first letter comes from Susan.

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And man Cato.

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I believe that's in Minnesota, though I could be thinking

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of Manitoba. They're basically the same place, and both will

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be in the United States if Trump has anything to

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say with it. Dear Patrick, this thing where we're renaming

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the Gulf of Mexico. That's not real, right, that has

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to be some nonsense your AI writers made up. Nope,

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that's real, you know, because nothing shows your commitment to

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American values like picking a fight with geography. I have

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to say Mexico's response was perfect. They suggested renaming the

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Rio Grand to the River of Northern Immigration. You have

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to admire that level as sass from an entire country.

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But then someone actually took it seriously, and here we are.

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Letter number two comes from Dennis in Brooklyn. You know,

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the part of Brooklyn that used to be cool before

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everyone started wearing monocles and brewing artisanal pickle juice. Dear Patrick,

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what's the deal with the NYU College Republicans having a

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complete meltdown over someone saying Baron Trump goes to class

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and goes home. Did I miss something scandalous? Well, Dennis,

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you're not missing anything. That's literally the whole story. The

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NYU College Republicans forced their president to resign because she

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told Vanity Fair that Baron Trump and I'm quoting here

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goes to class, he goes home. Now, I've been doing

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this job a long time, and by a long time,

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I mean when the previous host caught a cold and

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then disappeared from the face of the earth two days later.

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And let me tell you, I've seen some scandals, this

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isn't one of them. This is like getting fired from

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the Weather Channel for saying there are clouds in the sky.

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After forcing this poor girl to resign for stating observable facts,

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they immediately invited Baron to join their club, which really

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proves they're handling the situation totally normally and not at

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all like someone who just discovered their crushes Instagram. And

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then Eric Trump called his brother the most watched bachelor

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in the world. Now, I don't want to tell Eric

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how to do his job, whatever that is, but I'm

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pretty sure more people watch The Bachelor than watch Baron

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trying to get through intro to Philosophy. Letter number three

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from Rita and Tucson. Dear Patrick, can you explain these

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OSCAR nominations. My local theater only showed three movies last year,

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Barbie Something with Jason Statham, punching people, and a documentary

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about pickleball.

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None of these are nominated.

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Well, Rita, The Academy has announced their Best Picture nominations,

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and it's quite the list. We've got Dune Part two,

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which answers the age old question what if Lawrence of

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Arabia had giant sandworms. Then there's Amelia Perez, which I'm

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told as a movie and not as I originally thought,

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my neighbor's new succulent collection, The Brutalist, which isn't disappointingly

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about a particularly mean architect, and my personal favorite title,

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I'm Still Here, which is coincidentally what I say to

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my producer every time they catch me napping.

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During budget meetings.

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Portions of today's show were made with the help of

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AI and doubling up recording back on Monday,