[Mase]

TSP is not paint thinner. If you look at the ingredient deck for both products you will quickly learn why. TSP in high concentrations can be used as a cleaner, but the concentrations used in food have nothing in common with the ones used for cleaning.

Do you also fear sodium bicarbonate? It's used as a cleaner and to put out fires. Have you ever tried baking without using baking soda (same thing)? Yeah, you eat it all the time.

If you want to really avoid paint thinner, don't ever drink orange juice. OJ contains limonene, which is a key ingredient that makes paint thinner effective. There's more, benzene is in the air you breathe, the water you drink and in the roasted meats you eat. It is also highly toxic. Do you eat potatoes? If so, you're eating solanine and arsenic. Lettuce, carrots and grapes have trace quantities of caffeic acid, a known rat carcinogen. Also avoid nuts (aflatoxin), bread (acetaldehyde, acrylamide) and mushrooms (hydrazine) too. Trace amounts of dangerous chemicals exist in many of the foods you eat every day. However, there is absolutely no need to be afraid of them in these quantities.

[MD Expat in PA]

Sigh. As Mase pointed out TSP (is not a “paint thinner”). It is used in high concentrations as a cleaning agent and is very useful for prepping walls and trim surfaces prior to painting as it is a very good de-greasing agent and removes built up dirt like nicotine stains.

I used TPS when I was selling my old house when an inspection found traces of led paint on some of my interior window sills, just barely and I mean just barely over the recommended EPA limits.

The old paint had been covered up several times with a non-led latex paint over the years and there was absolutely no paint chipping but in order to pass the re-inspection I found after doing some research, that it was necessary for the window sills to vacuumed with a vacuum with a hepa filter and to then wash the surfaces with a high concentration of TSP, letting it dry completely before re-painting with an alkyd primer followed by a coat of latex paint. Worked like a charm. And it saved me a lot of money over contracting out for professional and completely unnecessary led paint abatement : )

But I might have also achieved the same effect by using baking soda (good old Sodium bicarbonate) the very same stuff you and just about everyone uses in baking as a leavening agent. But note that Sodium bicarbonate is also used as industrial cleaner for removing paint and corrosion in a process called “sodablasting” and similarly to TSP as a degreasing agent. Sodium bicarbonate is also used in fire extinguishers and to control fungus and mold growth. Some people also use it as a tooth paste and it is an ingredient in some mouthwashes and deodorants. Mixed with water Sodium bicarbonate can be used as an antacid to treat acid indigestion and heartburn but if ingested internally in high concentrations, it can and will most certainly kill you (so will vinegar in undiluted high concentrations BTW despite what some “alternative” medicine quacks tell you).

So tell me; why are you using an industrial cleaner, a deodorant and a known potentially lethal chemical when you bake your chocolate chip cookies or mix up a batch of pancake batter? For that matter why are you still using dihydrogen monoxide in your cooking or making your children drink it or in drinks that contain it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

And while I don’t like to reference them as a source, when they get it right when it comes to debunking a lot of internet rumors and misinformation, they get it right:

It is true that trisodium phosphate is effective as a cleaning agent, due in part to its alkalinity. Sodium bicarbonate is a similarly scary-sounding chemical compound used in heavy-duty cleaning, as an agent to detarnish silver, and to extinguish fires. But you cannot make chocolate chip cookies without the leavening power of baking soda, as it is more commonly known, and leavening is another common use for sodium phosphates. Similarly, water is a very common substance used for such tasks as cleaning, scrubbing silverware, and extinguishing fires, yet it poses no harm to consumers.

Trisodium phosphate is "generally recognized as safe" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is approved for use by food safety standards agencies in the European Union. TSP in high concentrations can be used for cleaning walls before painting, but it should not be conflated with "paint thinner," a solvent comprised of mineral spirits, turpentine, or acetone that is chemically unrelated to TSP.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/tsp.asp#GkQZdc15B2UEIThz.99