According to DOH the three chemical that is found in the “fake rice” are commonly used chemical for Pharmaceutical drugs and they are polyvinyl alcohol, cedrol and dibutyl phthalate. As per DOH this chemical are not harmful if taken in “small dose”.
Looking at the Material Safety Datasheet of dibutyl phtalate
It state that rat LD50 or lethal dose 50 is just 7.5 g/per kg. What does it mean in laymans term?… It means that if you give 7.5 grams /kg body weight of dibutyl phthalate each to two rats one of them will surely die. Although, the news did not mention how much phthalate is present in the fake rice if just estimate that the average Filipino consumes 300 grams per day then there is a possibility that a person can accumulate as much as 7.5 g/kg of phtalate in it’s system.
For the sake of discussion, lets assume that it is not cumulative in effect so let us neglect the LD50 but still according to its MSDS it “might” affect the kidney and central nervous system. If it affects the central nervous system then your whole bodily function will be retarded.
I just hope that a more clear and firm statement from our government would be issued whether fake rice is safe or not for human consumption.