4 ms·
This is kind of fascinating, but I hope they can remove the need for a Teflon electrode. This cancerous material needs to be banned from society.
by JohnWhigham 5y ago
This is kind of fascinating, but I hope they can remove the need for a Teflon electrode. This cancerous material needs to be banned from society.
- sp332 5y agoIt sounds like they're using it in an electret. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/electret https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/electret Teflon is definitely the go-to material, so I'm not surprised they reached for it in a prototype. But there are lots of possible alternatives, and they'd probably be able to find one suitable for this application if they're leaning into the "clean" aspect of the tech.
- inshadows 5y agoWhat's wrong with Teflon? There's not much information about relation to cancer on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
- syntaxing 5y agoThe issue (from what we know now) isn’t PTFE directly but PFOA/PFAS that is used in the process (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorooctanoic_acid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorooctanoic_acid)
- DoingIsLearning 5y agoAlso overheating PTFE or mechanically damaging/scratching PTFE. Which I think is not that far fetch in some percentage of what would constitute 'normal usage'.
- ampdepolymerase 5y agoIt's a perfectly fine material for many purposes. For most plumbing and scientific uses there is nothing wrong with it.
- xyzzyz 5y agoTeflon is not cancerous, according to our best scientific knowledge. It is commonly used for medical implants and devices, for example for lining of the catheters.