www.truthout.org...
One document detailed how DuPont scientists started warning company executives to avoid human contact with PFOA as early as 1961. Industry tests later determined the chemical accumulates in the body, doesn't break down in the environment and causes ailments in animals, including cancer, liver damage and birth defects....
If found guilty of illegally withholding information by an administrative law judge, DuPont could face more than $300 million in fines - about $100 million more than the company is estimated to make each year from products manufactured with PFOA....
DuPont already has agreed to pay up to $345 million to settle another lawsuit filed on behalf of 60,000 West Virginians and Ohioans whose drinking water is contaminated with PFOA. Much of what the public is starting to learn about the chemical comes from industry documents submitted during court proceedings.

For the past fifty years DuPont has claimed that their Teflon coatings do not emit hazardous chemicals through normal use. In a recent press release, DuPont wrote that "significant decomposition of the coating will occur only when temperatures exceed about 660 degrees F (340 degrees C). These temperatures alone are well above the normal cooking range.

In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor, a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736°F in three minutes and 20 seconds, with temperatures still rising when the tests were terminated. A Teflon pan reached 721°F in just five minutes under the same test conditions (See Figure 1), as measured by a commercially available infrared thermometer.

If you don't know what teflon look slike you can recognise the cooking ware form of it by it's slick black, often glossy appearance. It will be on the inside of the cookware. Also most cookware has a logo or name usually on the bottom of the pan, just google the name of the company with teflon adn I'm sure you will find a site somewhere bragging about it's non-stick ability.
Also I wanted to add that most of the major league fast food restraunts use clamshell grills, the tops of which are covered with a thin film of teflon sheeting which has to be changed regularly because it wears out and flakes off on the food product. I have seen this first hand in alot of my first jobs at McSweatshop and other restraunts. Maybe flame broiled is better.

www.mercola.com...
Dupont recently defended its position about partially complying with federal reporting guidelines on the health risks of a key ingredient found in Teflon.

The chemical giant has been criticized on many sides for its decision not to release all the information it compiled on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a soap-like ingredient used in making non-stick surfaces and materials. As a result, EPA has sought fines up to $300 million, arguing the company failed to inform the government and public about PFOA. The concerns:

DuPont concealed its own 1981 research showing traces of the chemical in a pregnant worker’s unborn child
Ten years later, the company failed to report evidence that the chemical had contaminated the water supply of 12,000 people

The son of a DuPont factory worker who was born with only one nostril and other facial defects (he has had 30 operations) is one of eight families suing the company over PFOA. Although the man recently married, he and his spouse have opted not to have children in case they inherit his condition....

Another health issue, “Teflon flu” causes aches and pains when non-stick pans are overheated, although a DuPont spokesperson said the physical problems are temporary and pass quickly. Yet birds, particularly small ones like finches and cockatiels, can die in short order from those kitchen fumes.

A British environmental minister has said his country will eventually ban one chemical associated with PFOA, perfluorooctane sulphonate, along with other European countries and in line with the United States. One expert on perfluorinated polymers noted the PFOA in Teflon to be potentially as harmful as perfluorooctane sulphonate, pointing out that PFOA has been recognized as a rat carcinogen for decades.

Suit Being Filed Against DuPont Over Teflon
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 1:02 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By JOHN HEILPRIN

A $5 billion class-action lawsuit is being filed against DuPont Co. saying the chemical giant long failed to warn consumers on the dangers of a Teflon chemical.

Two Florida law firms said Tuesday they were filing the suit in federal courts in eight states on behalf of 14 people who bought and used cookware with the nonstick Teflon. It is made using perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as PFOA, or C-8.

The plaintiffs want DuPont to spend $5 billion to replace the cookware, impose a Teflon warning label and create two funds to pay for medical monitoring and more scientific research, said Alan Kluger of Miami-based Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, P.L.

PFOA also is used in many other of the company's most popular products, such as auto fuel systems, firefighting foam, phone cables, computer chips and clothing.

www.boston.com

Source
EPA Board Says Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
By Randall Chase
The Associated Press
Thursday 16 February 2006
Dover, Delaware - A group of scientific advisers to the Environmental Protection Agency voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a recommendation that a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon and other nonstick and stain-resistant products should be considered a likely carcinogen.