3 ms·

Another story about Teflon! Why do these articles always bury the lede? Just say it's Telfon! There's a great documentary about this that came out last year ca

Another story about Teflon! Why do these articles always bury the lede? Just say it's Telfon! There's a great documentary about this that came out last year called, The Devil We Know. The TL;DR is that Dupont (seller of Teflon) and 3M (the inventor) knew early on that Telfon caused birth defects and cancer. They knew it would poison the water supply and could never be remediated. And they went ahead and sold it, again and again, into thousands of products because Dupont was earning about $1B in profits (on their $23B in revenue) just from Teflon alone.

kurthr 8y ago
Because teflon is not by definition a PFA (PerfluoroAlkoxyAlkane). It is C2F4, while PFAs are C2F3O?? (where there is an oxygen cooridinated reactive fluoro group dangling off at the ??) Teflon is non-reactive and does not have these health issues. However PFAs can be byproducts of the manufacture of teflon, and they can be used in similar ways to teflon (they allow high temperature molding of corrosion resistant materials). The primary contamination issue is with this byproduct, particularly when it was manufactured, sold and used as a fire suppressing foam. The people who dumped that crap and covered it up deserve jail time, but uninformed fear mongering doesn't serve the public either.
- mrfusion 8y ago
  So I can keep using my bread maker?
  - kurthr 8y ago
    Modern (last 10-20 years at least) commercial teflon is so low in PFAs that your exposure is likely dominated by what comes in your water :^\. I'd consider it at least as safe as the acrylamide coating your cast iron skillet. All of them are much safer than driving, but that frankly isn't very safe... since it's way up there on the list of things likely to kill you. Oh, but be careful with very high temperatures (500F+) frying, or dry boiling water pans. The teflon can break down and react with oxygen creating some of the same compounds. It has been known to kill birds!
- mimixco 8y ago
  This is not correct. Please watch the documentary film. Teflon absolutely has these health issues. You can move the tail ends of the molecule around all you want to and it still has the same dangers.
  - kurthr 8y ago
    Ummm... tail? C2F4 doesn't have one. It will form a polymer, but it doesn't have a tail. As I mentioned sulfates may be a byproduct in some manufacturing (precipitation) processes, but not in cookware where their contamination would be absolutely critical at ppm levels. Perhaps you mean the coordinating Oxygen in PFA or the Sulfur in PFOA, PFOS (ScotchGuard)? Those chemicals are known to be toxic and contaminated many marine animals and watersheds... some are regulated, some are not, and some companies have ignored the regulation, or the regulators have ignored the pollution. It's bad, but not relevant to teflon PTFE per se.
    - mimixco 8y ago
      It seems like you might not have seen the film. I'm not a chemistry expert, but it was quite enlightening. Maybe if you get a chance to watch it you cost post your thoughts...

kurthr 8y ago

Because teflon is not by definition a PFA (PerfluoroAlkoxyAlkane). It is C2F4, while PFAs are C2F3O?? (where there is an oxygen cooridinated reactive fluoro group dangling off at the ??) Teflon is non-reactive and does not have these health issues. However PFAs can be byproducts of the manufacture of teflon, and they can be used in similar ways to teflon (they allow high temperature molding of corrosion resistant materials). The primary contamination issue is with this byproduct, particularly when it was manufactured, sold and used as a fire suppressing foam. The people who dumped that crap and covered it up deserve jail time, but uninformed fear mongering doesn't serve the public either.

mrfusion 8y ago
So I can keep using my bread maker?
- kurthr 8y ago
  Modern (last 10-20 years at least) commercial teflon is so low in PFAs that your exposure is likely dominated by what comes in your water :^\. I'd consider it at least as safe as the acrylamide coating your cast iron skillet. All of them are much safer than driving, but that frankly isn't very safe... since it's way up there on the list of things likely to kill you. Oh, but be careful with very high temperatures (500F+) frying, or dry boiling water pans. The teflon can break down and react with oxygen creating some of the same compounds. It has been known to kill birds!
mimixco 8y ago
This is not correct. Please watch the documentary film. Teflon absolutely has these health issues. You can move the tail ends of the molecule around all you want to and it still has the same dangers.
- kurthr 8y ago
  Ummm... tail? C2F4 doesn't have one. It will form a polymer, but it doesn't have a tail. As I mentioned sulfates may be a byproduct in some manufacturing (precipitation) processes, but not in cookware where their contamination would be absolutely critical at ppm levels. Perhaps you mean the coordinating Oxygen in PFA or the Sulfur in PFOA, PFOS (ScotchGuard)? Those chemicals are known to be toxic and contaminated many marine animals and watersheds... some are regulated, some are not, and some companies have ignored the regulation, or the regulators have ignored the pollution. It's bad, but not relevant to teflon PTFE per se.
  - mimixco 8y ago
    It seems like you might not have seen the film. I'm not a chemistry expert, but it was quite enlightening. Maybe if you get a chance to watch it you cost post your thoughts...