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Except this isn’t true. It’s made of PTFE, which hasn’t been made with a PFA process in 15 years and is itself one of the most non reactive substances known unl

Except this isn’t true. It’s made of PTFE, which hasn’t been made with a PFA process in 15 years and is itself one of the most non reactive substances known unless you heat it to very high temperatures.

estiaan 3y ago
It’s not clear which part of the comment you meant when you said it’s not true, but PTFE is a PFAS, exactly how toxic it is or isn’t I don’t think is well known yet but people have been living with PTFE implants.
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  The toxicity of Glide. PFAS is a very broad class of chemicals. The toxic PFAS associated with PTFEs are PFOA and PFOS, both of which were phased out in production in the 2010s. Whenever this topic of Glide being toxic comes up they cite this article : https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/dental-floss-harmful-chemicals/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/dental-fl... Which is written based off this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-018-0109-y https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-018-0109-y Which is based off blood samples drawn in 2010-2013, which is at the time PFOA was being phased out of the PTFE production process due to lawsuits around the PFOA toxicity, which DuPont was aware of. The new process using GenX (seriously), which is known to cause problems too but at a lesser extreme than PFOA. However the issue with PTFE was with the residuals of PFOA which you don’t find in commercial PTFE for GenX. And yes, PTFE is widely used in medical implants and devices.
thriftwy 3y ago
Non-reactive usually implies forever chemical.
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  The entire right side of the periodic table is composed exclusively of forever chemicals by this definition. Non-reactive also means doesn’t interact chemically with other chemicals, which is a desirable thing in a plastic that might be ingested. While maybe not awesome that it sits in silt not reacting to the end of time, if it also doesn’t react with anything in your body, it’s safe to take into your body, no? The problem with some PFAS is they don’t readily degrade but they’re biologically reactive and interact with the bodies chemistry. That’s not a great feature. But it’s a huge class of chemicals, all of which are chemicals stable due to their carbon fluorine bonds - one of the most stable bonds in nature. But that doesn’t mean they can’t react in ways that don’t break the molecule apart, or form other chemicals that maintain the integrity of the C-F bond. But it also doesn’t mean that they DO react. Life isn’t so simple it can be reduced to a mantra like “plastic bad” or whatever. PTFE has a lot of very useful characteristics, and its lack of reactivity in the body isn’t the least of them.
  - kgc 3y ago
    If it doesn’t react with anything in your body, how would your body clear an accumulation of it?

estiaan 3y ago

It’s not clear which part of the comment you meant when you said it’s not true, but PTFE is a PFAS, exactly how toxic it is or isn’t I don’t think is well known yet but people have been living with PTFE implants.

fnordpiglet 3y ago
The toxicity of Glide. PFAS is a very broad class of chemicals. The toxic PFAS associated with PTFEs are PFOA and PFOS, both of which were phased out in production in the 2010s. Whenever this topic of Glide being toxic comes up they cite this article : https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/dental-floss-harmful-chemicals/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/dental-fl... Which is written based off this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-018-0109-y https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-018-0109-y Which is based off blood samples drawn in 2010-2013, which is at the time PFOA was being phased out of the PTFE production process due to lawsuits around the PFOA toxicity, which DuPont was aware of. The new process using GenX (seriously), which is known to cause problems too but at a lesser extreme than PFOA. However the issue with PTFE was with the residuals of PFOA which you don’t find in commercial PTFE for GenX. And yes, PTFE is widely used in medical implants and devices.

thriftwy 3y ago

Non-reactive usually implies forever chemical.

fnordpiglet 3y ago
The entire right side of the periodic table is composed exclusively of forever chemicals by this definition. Non-reactive also means doesn’t interact chemically with other chemicals, which is a desirable thing in a plastic that might be ingested. While maybe not awesome that it sits in silt not reacting to the end of time, if it also doesn’t react with anything in your body, it’s safe to take into your body, no? The problem with some PFAS is they don’t readily degrade but they’re biologically reactive and interact with the bodies chemistry. That’s not a great feature. But it’s a huge class of chemicals, all of which are chemicals stable due to their carbon fluorine bonds - one of the most stable bonds in nature. But that doesn’t mean they can’t react in ways that don’t break the molecule apart, or form other chemicals that maintain the integrity of the C-F bond. But it also doesn’t mean that they DO react. Life isn’t so simple it can be reduced to a mantra like “plastic bad” or whatever. PTFE has a lot of very useful characteristics, and its lack of reactivity in the body isn’t the least of them.
- kgc 3y ago
  If it doesn’t react with anything in your body, how would your body clear an accumulation of it?