is Teflon dangerous??

if you're in the US, check out 20/20 on ABC, it started at 10 here in EST. apparently there's a Teflon chemical called C8 that is in everybody's blood. new studies are showing this chemical may be dangerous. also, when Teflon heats up enough, it gives off dangerous fumes that cause symptoms called a "Teflon flu"! yikes!

Absolutely anything can be dangerous if mishandled.

couldnt have said it better myself

Yes,M.C heard it on the news this morning....and they knew of this for ages.......
I guess we are just a big test ......
Also the carpet foam for cleaning the carpet stains....very dangerous for kids.....
helen...

great post awesome topic

Coming from the resident 'treehugger' & 'peacenik' around here -- this IS a serious topic!

Check this lawsuit on Teflon:

Many years ago we made our mom throw out her beloved aluminum pots and pans because of fears about links to Alzheimers disease, and bought her a nice set of teflon coated utensils to replace it. Perhaps this was not a wise move - a U. of Toronto chemist has shown that Teflon coated pans release perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a "likely carcinogen" and other chemicals when heated to 360 celsius, admittedly far above normal cooking temperatures, unless you use a solar sizzler. Manufacturer Dupont has been hit with a $5 billion lawsuit from people who claim that they were not warned about the dangers of chemicals related to Teflon; Dupont says it its Teflon products are safe and do not contain or release PFOA.

www.treehugger.com...

[edit on 19-11-2007 by anhinga]

let's just say if you can't make it from something found in nature, and create it with a few simple tools in your workshop, it's probably dangerous...(throwing rocks and wooden spears aside)... that said, many compounds found in nature are considered poisonous if "abused".. those things though we can't talk about here at ATS as it may harm the "ratings"

Originally posted by never_tell
let's just say if you can't make it from something found in nature, and create it with a few simple tools in your workshop, it's probably dangerous...(throwing rocks and wooden spears aside)... that said, many compounds found in nature are considered poisonous if "abused".. those things though we can't talk about here at ATS as it may harm the "ratings"

i see what you are saying but not really that accurate.

tobacco(i am a user). radon is found in nature. lead.posin ivy oak and sumac. posinous animals. ect. ect. you dont have to abuse any of those and those you dont need tools for.

let see a few we can use simple tools to make stright from nature. alcohol. hmm a few that are aginst t&c.

those are a few examples. of what simple nature has to offer.

[edit on 15pmu72007 by DaleGribble]

reply to post by DaleGribble


all the things you've mentioned also have great medicinal properties, hense not "danerous" if not abused... sure, step on a snake that bites you (abuse the snake) and you may find yourself very sick... tobacco? used for thousands of years for a number of medicinal reasons... make alcohol? that's easily done... ancients brewed beer and made wine long before the Shlitz family became involved... sumac tea is also something that has been used in the arena of the "vision quest" for a long long time... just ask any native Canadian...

My chemistry prof was warning us about the dangers of teflon back in the mid '70's........he related a story of factory workers that mysteriously died while applying teflon.

It was finally discovered that some of the bits of the coating had fallen into open cigarette packs in the workers' shirt pockets.......then when the cig was lit, the temp went high enough to vaporize the teflon and allowing it to be inhaled.

He jokingly called it 'the perfect murder weapon', but seriously cautioned us about exposing teflon to high temps......

reply to post by frayed1


Crazy story! Should anyone research this a little -- the OP and their source is exactly right -- the carcinogens that are released into the kitchen when cooking w/ these are exposed to the flu:

en.wikipedia.org...

Polymer fume fever or fluoropolymer fever, also informally called Teflon flu, is an inhalation fever caused by the fumes released when PTFE, (known under the trade names Fluon, Teflon, and Halon) is heated to between 300 °C and 450 °C. When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of PTFE. Signs: leukocytosis; normal chest x-ray.

Truly sickening and a blatant disrespect of human rights that these pans haven't been outright banned yet, think of all the places that *could* use these products:

www.ablekitchen.com...

About the ABC story and more info:

The same chemical, C-8, was found not only in the blood of Sue Bailey when she became pregnant but, it turns out, is in the blood of virtually every American, in much smaller but still detectable levels. This discovery make this a story that reaches far beyond what happened in one small town in West Virginia.

"In retrospect, this may seem like one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mistakes the chemical industry has ever made," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, an activist organization.

"And how could they not be in our blood?" Houlihan said. "They're in such a huge range of consumer products. We're talking about Teflon, Stainmaster, Gore-tex, Silverstone. So if you buy clothing that's coated with Teflon or something else that protects it from dirt and stains, those chemicals can absorb directly through the skin."

Houlihan and her colleague, Kris Thayer, senior scientist at EWG, have been poring over 20 years of confidential DuPont papers and other industry documents on Teflon.

www.rawfoodinfo.com...

[edit on 19-11-2007 by anhinga]

Truly sickening and a blatant disrespect of human rights that these pans haven't been outright banned yet, think of all the places that *could* use these products:

ahh, but a great respect for profits!

The military industrial complex at work. How they so care for us eaters, even when we're eating. Lovely.

www.ohiocitizen.org...

This is a good collection of articles relating to a wide array of legal disputes with DuPont concerning enivronmental damages. A good read on all sorts of pending legal issues for them. Plus some good pictures of where they dump their "treated" water back into the rivers and lakes.

You wanna know what I find interesting? It's bothering to me that they will teflon-coat Aluminum skillets. Not only is the teflon harmful to the person, but so is the Aluminum, as it's been accused of causing Alzheimer's.

Looks like it's back to Copper skillets and pans for me..

TheBorg

If you have an aviary at home, get rid of all cookware that has any Teflon...even slightly overheating a coated pan will release enough toxic fumes to kill a bird stone-dead

Glad to see this thread active -- the "Teflon flu" is a quiet killer and we/you should tell everyone you know to get rid of the 'non-stick' pans, *they* aren't going to ban them anytime soon, so we'll do it for *them*!

And thanks to Karlhungis, informative post as usual, good link.

[edit on 20-11-2007 by anhinga]

Originally posted by citizen smith
even slightly overheating a coated pan will release enough toxic fumes to kill a bird stone-dead

Or...keep a canary on the stove.

It's a time honored tradition. You can teach them to chirp when the food is done, too!

The canary in the mine thingy, absolutely hilarious in a non kind of way. Good point. Side note, dialysis dementia is a well known disorder of patients exposed to elevated levels of aluminum in their blood washing water. How many of us are going to be drooling moronic w/c pts? I once went on a run once to a nursing home to fix some equipment and broke up a fight where one pt was pelting another with his cane from a w/c in an alzheimer wing. It was disturbing.

[edit on 20-11-2007 by jpm1602]

for a long time now, i have used iron skillets and dutch ovens,

since i don't go to restaurants as a normal thing, i've never researched
how they prepare their food....but common sense tells me that
these restaurants do not use crappola like teflon pans
(which are basically poor folks cooking untinsels-- for a reason of trying to stretch a dollar)
Teflon + Dupont has been in (semi) Litigation for more than a decade already... nothing has been determined...because the 'teflon' product is
a money maker 'world wide' - - not just here in the USA.