[Jman]

What kind of chemicals are leached from typical supermarket food grade plastic wrap? Can it damage in any way valuable plastic CD cases, items finished in oil based polyurethane varnish? If left wrapped for a few years touching the plastic? Moisture doesn't seem to be a problem due to desiccants & regular airing out.

I had a blank DVD wrapped in food wrap for a few weeks & it seems to leave behind a residue in the form of patterns on the disc, that can be wiped off with cleaner. But maybe some items it will be permanent?




Thanks

[Intanjir]

Plasticizers can leach out. If it left a film that could just be wiped off then it probably didn't effectively penetrate into the DVD plastic.
However, a few weeks seems rather short.

[Jman]

Plasticizers can leach out. If it left a film that could just be wiped off then it probably didn't effectively penetrate into the DVD plastic.
However, a few weeks seems rather short.

Do you know if these Plasticizers can react with or damage the DVD cases which are solid plastic acrylic I think. If they did penetrate does that mean it would only come off by polishing or some aggressive solvent?

[Enthalpy]

But since manufacturers make big efforts to avoid compounds leaching out of food packaging, and since films are thin, would food packaging leach a visible amount of anything?

DVD have one soft side. Maybe mechanical compression through a film left a pattern over time?

[Jman]

But since manufacturers make big efforts to avoid compounds leaching out of food packaging, and since films are thin, would food packaging leach a visible amount of anything?

DVD have one soft side. Maybe mechanical compression through a film left a pattern over time?

I have observed:

Garbage bags leave a residue that can be wiped off with some things like lcd screen if only exposed for a short period.

Typical food wraps do leave a permanent residue on my oil based woodwork finish after 6-12months even while barley touching.
But on other items like cd cases & paper/artwork covers apparently nothing at the same time of exposure.

The mechanical compression patterns look small & there are a lot of them. Usually only from heavy objects.

[Corribus]

Every polymer has additives in it (stabilizers, processing aids, UV-protects, antioxidants, slip agents.... and on and on), and any of them can leach out into the environment given time and favorable chemistry. For commercial grade food packaging, none of these agents are permitted to migrate into foods at unsafe levels under intended conditions of use. If you are using the material in a way that is wasn't intended, of course, or are using plastics that were never intended to come into contact with food, then obviously all bets are off.

(Note also that the properties of the food make a difference. Just because something migrates onto oil-treated wood - which has chemical properties very similar to a polyolefin plastic - doesn't mean it will come out into food on the same scale over the time period. A time period which, by the way, is far longer than most people would use plastic wrap for food.)