Are your plastic kitchen utensils toxic? An alarming study gets an update.

An alarming study that had Americans tossing out their black plastic kitchen utensils, toys and to-go packages earlier this month overstated the concern, the researchers admit.

But they still say these products aren't safe to use.

In their correction published Sunday, the authors of the new study from the environmental advocacy group Toxic-Free Future said in a statement that while their initial number was incorrect, the calculation "does not affect the overall conclusion of the paper."

A study in the journal Chemosphere in December concluded that toxic brominated flame retardants and organophosphate flame retardants might be present at dangerous levels in some products containing black recycled plastic.

The items tested included black plastic utensils such as spatulas, black plastic to-go containers (usually the bottom portion) and some toys.

But the study authors made a math mistake, miscalculating how much of potentially toxic flame retardants a 132-pound person could safely ingest.

The Environmental Protection Agency's "reference dose" of these chemicals for a 132-pound person actually works out to 420,000 nanograms a day, not the 42,000 nanograms the researchers used − meaning the amount that can be safely consumed is 10 times larger than they presumed. (Reference dose means the maximum acceptable oral does of a toxic substance, according to the EPA.)

It remains true that high rates of exposure to some flame retardants are associated with a greater risk of cancer, according to a paper published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Association, so the concern is real.

How do toxic chemicals get in black plastic items?

Toxic flame retardants can get into black plastic kitchenware and other items because the black plastic used to make them sometimes includes recycled electronic products that contain flame retardants.

They are likely coming from recycled black plastic housings used in televisions and electronics, which are required for safety purposes to contain flame retardants.

This type of plastic appears to be getting into at least some consumer products such as kitchen utensils, food serviceware, toys and hair accessories sold in the United States. Most of the recycling is done outside the U.S.

Some of the chemicals the researchers' testing found are banned in the United States, including Deca-BDE.

Of the 11 flame retardants found in the products tested, however, none is regulated in recycled plastic, Toxic-Free Future, the environmental advocacy group that led the study, said in its statement.

Toxic-Free Future noted that "the flame retardants found aren’t needed for any reason in kitchen utensils, toys, hair accessories, or food packaging, making this a health hazard that can be avoided entirely."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alarming study on toxic black plastic kitchen utensils gets an update