Allen had poor experience when overwintering bees in brand new styro boxes
and asked "Does new plastic equipment off-gas for a while until broken in?
Should I have left the boxes out in the weather for a while before using
them?"

All molded plastic material outgas for awhile.  "Styrofoam" is a brand name
for expanded polystyrene.  I would think a web search would quickly
determine the extent of outgas and whether the outgas is likely to be
harmful.  Given the extent to which expanded polystyrene is used for food
containers (think coffee cups) I doubt that any outgas is harmful.  But, I
really have no idea.

Polypropylene and polyethylene food containers outgas very little, but some
claim a definite effect on taste.

Lloyd

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L