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This raises a question i see a lot of confusion about, but doesnt quite answer it: Are finished PTFE products contaminated with the base PFAS monomers? Its li
by droopyEyelids 3y ago
This raises a question i see a lot of confusion about, but doesnt quite answer it:
Are finished PTFE products contaminated with the base PFAS monomers?
Its like how vinyl chloride is dangerous, but when its the polymer PVC its basically safe. People are confused about this in general. I am too.
- amluto 3y agoThe monomer is tetrafluoroethylene, which is a gas: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrafluoroethylene https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrafluoroethylene As I understand it, the three concerns are: 1. The manufacturing and processing of PTFE is usually done in water with a fluorosurfactant mixed in. The fluorosurfactant varies from nasty to extremely nasty. 2. PTFE could potentially degrade into something less benign than PTFE. 3. PTFE has mediocre thermal stability — it starts to decompose a bit at temperatures that you can easily reach with careless cooking and, notably, it starts to decompose while it’s still a solid. This makes any kind of theromoplastic processing (extruding, molding, etc) a bit nasty. I think the decomposition products are gasses. They are noted for killing birds and concentrations at which their presence is not obvious to mammals.