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E-mailed warnings against a non-existent lurking threat regarding cups of instant noodles made their Internet debut in early October 2000, although the belief that eating instant noodles causes a waxy internal buildup is actually older than that: Styrofoam does an excellent job all on its own in keeping a hot liquid hot, and the thicker heat 'n' serve containers made from styrofoam stand up very well to microwave heating. There'd be no need to use a wax lining in such a container, because any use it could possibly serve is already well handled by the styrofoam. As well, coating with wax the interior of a styrofoam container one knows will be used to heat a product would be rather pointless, because heat will melt wax, thus incorporating what was supposed to be part of the package into the foodstuff. Manufacturers of instant foods have a hard enough time convincing consumers that their stuff tastes good enough to eat without introducing melted wax into the equation. Even if wax were used in the styrofoam containers, and even if some of it did get into the food, it wouldn't adversely affect the average person. (It might possibly cause a problem for infants or those with damaged or impaired digestive systems, but not ordinary, healthy adults.) Though it's not generally known, a number of candies routinely contain wax products. (Rowntree's Smarties and Just Born's Peeps immediately come to mind: carnauba wax is used in these products, as it is in candy corn.) In some confections, the wax is more upfront, as countless children who've indulged in wax lips and wax soda bottles will happily attest. To the best of our knowledge, none of the indulgers in these products have had to have the wax scraped out of their stomachs or developed cancer as a result (including my husband, who in the Halloweens of his childhood happily ate several pieces of wax lips a day). This badly-constructed scare would have us believe someone's unnamed nephew in the United Kingdom died from a buildup of wax in his stomach. Wax, like just about anything else one swallows, is pushed through the digestive system and exits the body as part of a bowel movement. Nothing inherently special in wax would turn it into a permanent coating clinging forever to the stomach lining. In October 2010 we spotted a similar e-mail about the supposed danger of using wax-lined paper cups for hot liquids:
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