Teflon! Would You Eat It?

You do, every day.

Published on January 26, 2006 By singrdave In Health & Medicine

Did you know that Teflon has harsh chemicals that can cause brith defects and cancer? Neither did I. But I have Teflon pans and cookware. My wife and I eat food from them evey day. We feed it to our children. Is this a real threat or is it just a product of our ligitgious and overreactive society?

Health warning or scare? You be the judge.

From today's Washington Post:

Eight U.S. companies, including giant DuPont Co., agreed yesterday to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products coated with the ubiquitous nonstick material.

Although the chemical would still be used to manufacture Teflon and similar products, processes will be developed to ensure that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) would not be released into the environment from finished products or manufacturing plants.

PFOA -- a key processing agent in making nonstick and stain-resistant materials -- has been linked to cancer and birth defects in animals and is in the blood of 95 percent of Americans, including pregnant women. It has also been found in the blood of marine organisms and Arctic polar bears.

The voluntary pact, which was crafted by the Environmental Protection Agency, will force companies to reduce manufacturing emissions of PFOA by 95 percent by no later than 2010. They will also have to reduce trace amounts of the compound in consumer products by 95 percent during the same period and virtually eliminate them by 2015.

The agreement will dramatically reduce the extent to which PFOA shows up in a wide variety of everyday products, including pizza boxes, nonstick pans and microwave-popcorn bags.

DuPont officials said they were confident they could alter manufacturing methods over the coming decade to contain PFOA exposure from products that generated $1 billion in sales for the company in 2004.

"It's important to do this because this is a persistent material in the environment, and it's at low levels in people's blood," said David Boothe, DuPont's global business director. To remove PFOA, he said, the company will subject some of its products to extra heat and will sometimes add a step in the manufacturing process. "We're going to push it really hard and take it as far as we can."

Scientific studies have not established a link between using products containing trace amounts of PFOA, such as microwave-popcorn bags or nonstick pans, and elevated cancer levels. Hazen said yesterday's announcement should "not indicate any concern . . . for consumers using household products" with such coatings.

Apparently this erupted over a lawsuit from the child of a DuPont plant worker who was born with serious birth defects. The mother was exposed to the chemical every day in the Teflon creation process.

So, JUsers: decide for yourself. Health scare? Or justified health warning?

Comments

singrdave

on Jan 26, 2006

I bump thee, mighty article!

Dr Guy

on Jan 26, 2006

Scare. I can see why the lady has a case, but the amounts we are exposed to, if any, are miniscule in comparison. They are trying to save us from death, but they will always lose.

Texas Wahine

on Jan 26, 2006

Teflon's yummy.

I'd rather take a big bite out of a Teflon-coated skillet than eat menudo.

Caracarn1

on Jan 26, 2006

Eggs are good, then bad, then just the yolks are bad, then just the yolks are good.

My standing: Fuck it, it makes dishes easier to do

KarmaGirl

on Jan 26, 2006

They thought asbestos was "OK" at one time, so it's not hard to think that this could be legit, too.

You can have a "non-stick" pan that does not have teflon or a coating on it. The pan that I use is like this:

It's a Calphalon Infused Anodized pan. It doesn't have a "coating" on it, so it will always be non-stick. They cost a bit more, but you don't have to worry about having the surface flake off.

historyishere

on Jan 26, 2006

I would like to add that the similarity between the current teflon changes and the strange disappearance of the 3m "Scotchgard" brand in 2000 are somewhat related. They were finding the chemicals found in Scotchgard in blood donations back in the 1970's, chemicals from the same family as those used in teflon(perfluorooctanes).

Scotchgard has recently come back however, so you should be a little wary nonetheless.

Spc Nobody Special

on Jan 26, 2006

It fails the miner's canary test. It's been known for a while that if you put a songbird in the kitchen and cook with a teflon pan, it's a fair chance the bird'll croak.

JillUser

on Jan 26, 2006

I heard a while back that they were blaming Teflon for causing alzheimers also. I do know that my mom used teflon pans the entire time I was gowing up. None of us have cancer and there have been no birth defects. I'm not ready to give up my telfon pan.

singrdave

on Jan 26, 2006

It's been known for a while that if you put a songbird in the kitchen and cook with a teflon pan, it's a fair chance the bird'll croak.

And he'll poop in your food. That is against health regulations.

You can have a "non-stick" pan that does not have teflon or a coating on it.

We have a couple of skillets that don't have teflon on them, but not on purpose. I discovered tonight when I got home what our actual inventory is. We have a cast-iron grill pan that is a nightmare to clean, as well as the two non-stick pans that aren't Teflon-coated.

Are we gonna throw away our Teflon items? Probably not. But this article may cause me to not buy new ones.

Dr Guy

on Jan 26, 2006

Are we gonna throw away our Teflon items? Probably not. But this article may cause me to not buy new ones.

And all the scares will send us back to the cave days. It is getting that ridiculous.

singrdave

on Feb 15, 2006

Did I call it? Well, did I call it or what?
I posted this article on January 26th, and on February 6, the Baltimore Sun published this article:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital drew blood from the umbilical cords of 300 newborns and discovered something that would be deeply unnerving to many parents:

Ninety-nine percent of the babies were born with trace levels of an industrial chemical - suspected as a possible cancer-causing agent - that is used in the manufacture of Teflon pans, computer chips, cell phones and dozens of other consumer products.

Now Dr. Lynn Goldman, Rolf Halden and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are working with other scientists to determine whether the toxic chemical has harmed the infants, possibly by interfering with their thyroid glands and hormone levels.

Previous studies, some funded by industry, have found perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the bloodstream of most Americans. But the Hopkins study, supported by the federal and state governments, is the largest independent research project to examine the compound's effects on newborns, who may be more vulnerable to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

"It's very clear that PFOA is being released into the environment, and it's pretty much ubiquitous," Goldman said. "But we don't know if it's toxic to people at these levels."

Things to make you go "hmmm..."

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