Burned a plastic spatula on the oven...should I be concerned?

January 5, 2011 6:18 AM

Burned a plastic spatula on the oven...should I be concerned?

I accidentally left a plastic spatula sitting on the corner of an oven-top griddle which, subsequently, melted while I wasn't looking. I thought there was a lot of smoke and that it smelled bad, but it took a few minutes to realize what was happening (there was also food on the grill that I had been marinating, so there was already smoke anyway).

Once I did, I took the whole hot griddle outside and aired out the house as best I could through the oven fan, a couple of windows, one door and the ceiling fans and turned the furnace fan on to circulate and suck up the air. The smoke dissipated pretty quickly, but I'm curious to know how much harm I may have done health-wise, especially with my 3 year-old son in the adjacent (and connected) living room while all this was happening?

Is there anything I should be concerned about (obviously I'm aware that burning plastic is toxic)?

Thanks!

posted by S1C EM to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I think maybe you should read the responses to the last question you asked since I suspect they will be similar. In short: Plastic smoke is certainly not a good thing to inhale, but it was a small amount and you seem to have done everything in your power to evacuate all the smoke, and if you're really worried you should call your poisons info hotline and double check.
posted by jaynewould at 6:46 AM on January 5, 2011

Ack, apologies for the complete linkfail. This thread.
posted by jaynewould at 6:47 AM on January 5, 2011

You've done yourself and your son virtually no harm. You've adequately ventilated the house. There are unlikely to be high levels of residual toxins. Everything should be fine. Don't forget to buy a new spatula.
posted by Ahab at 7:18 AM on January 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Generally speaking, acute exposures aren't likely to cause lasting harm. The one chemical that I can think of that is truly risky in a short term inhalation exposure (other than obvious asphyxiation-type problems) is cyanide.

With both CFLs and burning plastic the important step is to ventilate and remove the source, and you did that well. You and your son should be fine. If coughing or other respiratory problems persist, obviously you should see a doctor. But many people live with burning plastics every day (eg, we used to burn all our plastic cups in the wood stove when I was a kid), and the increase in risk for those people is small, and for you, even smaller.
posted by ldthomps at 7:45 AM on January 5, 2011

On any given evening, at least 1 out of every 1,000 cooks melt a plastic spatula on the stove. With more than 2 billion cooks on the planet, that amounts to some 750,000 incinerated utensils each year. Deaths attributed to burnt spatulas (as opposed to spatulas wielded as weapons) are typically around zero. You will almost certainly be OK, whatever that means.
posted by cincinnatus c at 10:11 AM on January 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers. Makes me feel better.

I'm coughing some today, but I honestly don't know if it has more to do with my sinus infection that I've had for a week or if I actually aggravated anything with the smoke last night. I'll give it a couple of days before I become too concerned with it.

I figured that an acute exposure shouldn't be too harmful, especially after venting the area as much as possible. Was just curious what the masses would think. =)

Thanks!
posted by S1C EM at 12:53 PM on January 5, 2011