4 ms·

Since when is Teflon non-toxic? Scientists need to stay away from food.

• readams 5y ago
  Teflon won't react with anything in your body. It's totally inert. It's one of the most inert things we know about. That's the whole point of the article.
  • zaknil 5y ago
    You could have said the same thing about asbestos.
  • Turing_Machine 5y ago
    It's effectively inert to anything except molten sodium, magnesium, or the like. It will depolymerize at temperatures above 650-700C. Neither of those conditions is likely to be found in your body.
    • code_duck 5y ago
      The temperatures I’m familiar with and can find online are much lower than what you list, specifically starting to decompose at 250c and significant decomposition over 350c. I’d be worried about putting this on a grill or frying it. It’s theoretically mostly safe in terms of temperature, almost. Wikipedia already has a section addressing temperature overlap between food and Teflon decomposition: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene#Safety https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene#Safe...
  • kurthr 5y ago
    Yeah, the manufacturing biproducts (PFOA, PFOS etc) can certainly interfere with biological processes and endure in the environment for a long time, but PTFE is relatively benign as a solid... until it gets really hot and decomposes into carbonyls.