What happens if you drink from a styrofoam cup?

Styrene can leach from cups and containers into hot drinks and food and bleed into alcohol or high-fat drinks and foods in particular. Consumers who drink beverages from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years will have ingested about one foam cup’s worth of styrene along with those beverages.

What is the trade name for Styrofoam cups?

Styrofoam is the trade name of an expanded polystyrene product made by the Dow Chemical Co. Expanded polystyrene products are used as insulators for home and household products, including disposable cups. These products are designed for a single use.

Is it better to use a ceramic cup or a styrofoam cup?

Yes, these cups take forever to decompose and thus take up space in landfills. But drinking your daily cup of coffee out of a Styrofoam cup uses less energy than drinking out of a ceramic cup and washing it in hot water after each use—unless your ceramic cup lasts for 1,000 uses and you wash it only after every third use.

What happens if you drink from a polystyrene Cup?

Consumers who drink beverages from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years will have ingested about one foam cup’s worth of styrene along with those beverages. Short-term symptoms of excessive exposure to styrene can include irritation of the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract as well as gastrointestinal distress.

Is it safe to use Styrene foam cups?

Based on what we now know, you’re probably safe using styrene foam cups for cold drinks, but I wouldn’t use them for hot coffee or tea, and I would avoid using plastic containers for hot foods. You can recognize styrene foam cups at a glance.