Lifestyle

Using Newspaper as Table Cloth is Harmful so Stop Doing It; Here’s Why

2018-04-19 , 5:00 pm

Last Updated on 2020-11-26 , 7:30 pm

It’s a common practice for many Singaporeans and Malaysians to place a sheet (or more than a sheet) of newspaper on the dining table or on your table, and put your food on it.

Not only would we not dirty the table, we can dispose of the newspaper easily, saving us the time and effort to clean the table of any food residues. Also, the newspaper absorbs the oil well, so it’s essentially killing two birds with one stone.

If you’ve often done this, you’ll better stop now.

Using Newspaper as Table Cloth is Harmful so Stop Doing It

While you can argue that you’ve just placed bowls or plates on the newspaper, and that the food doesn’t come in direct contact with the newspaper, the fact of the matter is that you’re still somehow going to touch the newspaper (if not how would you be able to lay it on the table?). And if you’re touched enough newspaper, you’ll realize that some of them aren’t exactly the cleanest paper ever—you’ll see black stains on your fingers.

Now, imagine grabbing your fries with your stained fingers. Or even licking your fingers because it’s finger lickin’ good.

The thing is, solvents are used to dissolve inks on newspapers. And these solvents might just contain cancer-causing elements. While the risk might not be as high as using newspaper to wrap direct food (that’s a BIG NO-NO!), there’re still some risk involved.

In addition, there might be graphite on the newspaper. According to dietitian and sports nutritionist Deepshikha Agarwal, while other wastes might be able to be removed from your body through defecation, graphite might not be able to, which leads to its accumulation in your body. This could potentially harm your lungs and kidneys.

Many years ago, people used to do that as newspaper soak oil easily, and it’s cheap—but it’s 2016 now: we have tablecloths meant to do that.

Also, there’re disposable table clothes available, and they look nice, too. You can find them in any SKP or Daiso outlets.

So next time, when you’ve just got your McDelivery and decide to use a newspaper as your tablecloth, remember this: your one minute of convenience could potentially harm you.

Better safe than sorry, eh?

Featured Image: Olaf Speier / Shutterstock.com

Using Newspaper as Table Cloth is Harmful so Stop Doing It; Here’s Why

Using Newspaper as Table Cloth is Harmful so Stop Doing It

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