Even if you burn the heck out of it, it has little direct risk if you're not a bird. I think the worst recorded case had someone fall asleep, burn the pan down

Even if you burn the heck out of it, it has little direct risk if you're not a bird. I think the worst recorded case had someone fall asleep, burn the pan down to the base metal, and fill his apartment with smoke. All he got were some flu-like breathing symptoms (polymer fume fever) and a few days in hospital to monitor. So the chances of problems from incidentally getting the pan too hot via normal cooking seem low. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ That said, cancer is apparently everywhere these days so that's a possibility, but no links are yet known. Though I do steer towards steel and iron anyway since I like to get a good sear which is easier with iron, and using metal tools is just more fun.