Everyone with black plastic utensils in kitchen warned 'throw them away now'

Households across the UK are being urged to throw away black plastic utensils as soon as they can after it as found they could contain a banned toxic chemical.

A new study detected alarming amounts of highly toxic flame retardants in various everyday household items including children's toys, takeaway containers and utensils such as plastic spatulas, potato mashers, pasta strainers and serving spoons.

Flame retardants are chemicals which are applied to products to make them less likely to catch fire or burn.

But if ingested or inhaled, some of the common chemicals used such as tetrabromobisphenol A or antimony trioxide have been linked to foetal development issues in pregnant women or even liver damage.

The study found that people who use black plastic kitchen utensils can be exposed to 34.7 parts per million of decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) daily. And another study found that people with high levels of BDEs in their blood are 300 percent more likely to develop terminal .

Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program told CNN: "I would recommend not using black plastic for food contact materials or buying toys with black plastic pieces."

Now households are being urged to recycle all their black plastic utensils and ditch them for wood or stainless steel as soon as possible.

The research did not look at other colours of plastic, although the increasing use of plastic has been linked to a rise in microplastics being found in people's blood which has raised concerns over the potential long term health implications which could arise.

Megan Liu, one of the lead authors of the study, added: "We need government and corporate policies that restrict the use of these harmful chemicals like flame retardants and hazardous plastics so that we can safely recycle items without worrying about chemical contamination and our health."