A large percentage of people in America and Europe go to Chinese, Japanese or Korean restaurants  on a regular basis, where disposable chopsticks are offered as optional tableware.  Unfortunately, a recent study suggests some disposable chopsticks may contain harmful and even deadly poisons. It is important to use disposable chopsticks with caution.

China manufactures world’s most disposable chopsticks, which consumes the country over two million cubic meters of forest resources every year. There are two major materials for the disposable chopsticks, wood and bamboo. In normal productions by formal manufacturers, only high quality wood are used to make chopsticks. However, many smaller workshops - combinedly having significant market shares - choose to use cheap and low quality wood to reduce production costs.

Low quality wood looks darker, so chopsticks made out of it can not be accepted by the market directly.  After being treated with certain chemical processes, however, those chopsticks will look just like ones made from the high quality wood.

There are two common processing method. The solid-state treatment uses sulfur to whiten the skins of chopsticks. Any chopsticks being treated with sulfur potentially contain Sulfur dioxide with a content that easily exceeds health limit. The sulfur dioxide is solidified when cold so it can be transported into human’s respiratory system to cause coughing and asthma.

Another processing method is liquid-state treatment, in which chlorine or hydrogen peroxide is used for bleaching purposes. Both chemicals can cause liver stone to develop.  What’s more scary is they may contain fatal dioxin.

Bamboo chopsticks could also contain harmful elements. Removing stingers is a mandatory step in making bamboo chopsticks. In order to make their skins extra smooth, many factories use talc as an additive. The talc, often being referred as “monkey poison”, is also a chemical that can cause growth of  liver stones.

Monkey poison under microscope

Monkey poison under microscope