I burned my nose on my tea kettle today. Don’t laugh.
Well, OK, laugh, but only for a moment. All done? Alright, let me explain.
I’ve had the tea kettle for a couple of months, and while pouring some hot water into a cup a few days ago, I got the distinct smell of burning plastic in the air. So I examined the tea kettle inside and out. No melted plastic, no pieces coming off of the spout or handle. Then I noticed that the little lid that opens at the spout is made of hard plastic and not all metal. So I decided to see if that was the plastic I smelled burning. Sure enough, it was coming from that piece of plastic.
Of course, I should have waited a couple of minutes to smell the plastic because I got a nice shot of steam right onto my nose. It stung for a while but the pain went away that night and there wasn’t even any discoloration on the skin, so I won’t look like W.C. Fields the rest of my life. And now I have a story to tell my grandkids, only I’ll change the “burnt my nose on the tea kettle” part of the story to “crazed biker threw hot water in my face in a fight.”
Anyway, I’m wondering if I should get rid of this thing. I love the kettle (it’s the OXO Uplift, designed so you can lift it, pour the tea, and then close it again using only one hand — clever, actually), but now I have this probably lame worry that I’m getting infected by melted plastic. I’ve used it a dozen times since then and I haven’t gotten that smell again (though I’m sure I could smell it again if I put my nose close the plastic, though that’s not going to happen again). Is it possible for plastic to smell that way just because boiling water hit it and it’s not melting or anything it just smells for a few minutes?
This was one of those tea-related accidents you keep hearing about but never think will happen to you.
Clacked by Bob Sassone 
on Feb 04, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
