Re: Teflon Coated Pans(long)

[Guest guest]

>

> Someone posted today that they are avoiding teflon coated pans. Does

> anyone know the reasoning for this? I use them everyday for my son who

> has been SCD for 7 mos now.

>

> Mom to Jack, 5.5 years, ASD, 7 mos SCD

>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/

AR2006013100279.html

By L. Wolke

Special to The Washington Post

Wednesday, February 1, 2006; Page F01

Last week's news about U.S. manufacturers' gradual elimination of a certain

chemical from

their factory emissions and products with nonstick coating caused home cooks to

look

askance at some of their kitchen equipment. We asked " Food 101 " columnist and

chemistry professor L. Wolke for his take on the matter.

Maybe it's a sign of our times, but who would have expected stories about a

chemical

compound called perfluorooctanoic acid to strike fear in the hearts of cooks?

But the recent news led one authority to say, " I certainly wouldn't use a Teflon

fry pan. "

What's the connection?

PFOA is used in the manufacture of fluorine-containing polymers, materials such

as Teflon

that repel water and resist staining by oil and grease. In addition to nonstick

cooking

surfaces, consumer applications include microwave popcorn bags and pizza

delivery

boxes.

Although many chemists would be hard-pressed to tell you exactly what PFOA is,

it hit the

front page of The Post and other newspapers around the world Thursday, after the

U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency asked eight U.S. chemical companies to

substantially

reduce and eventually eliminate the chemical from its products and plant

emissions. They

agreed to do so.

Why? Because PFOA -- a synthetic industrial chemical that as far as we know does

not

exist in nature -- is, according to the EPA, " very persistent in the

environment, [has been]

found at very low levels both in the environment and in the blood of the general

U.S.

population, and [has] caused developmental and other adverse effects in

laboratory

animals. " Although research on the environmental and health implications of PFOA

has

been fragmentary and no correlation between PFOA exposure and human cancer has

been

found, calls are being made in the United States and as far away as Australia to

ban the

chemical entirely.

Most nonstick cooking surfaces are made of Teflon, or polytetrafluoroethylene.

And PFOA

is one of the intermediate chemicals used in the chain of chemical-reaction

steps that

produce it. But the PFOA is virtually all gone before the final material comes

off the

production line. Intermediate chemicals of one kind or another are part of

virtually all

chemical manufacturing processes and are not allowed to contaminate the final

product.

Teflon is microscopically smooth and nonporous (one of the reasons nothing

sticks to it).

Even if it does harbor trace amounts of PFOA, which is all anyone has suggested,

the PFOA

is unlikely to seep into food or escape into the air in kitchens -- unless, of

course, an

empty nonstick pan were abandoned on a hot burner, because above 600 degrees or

so (a

temperature rarely reached in cooking), the Teflon would begin to decompose into

toxic

fumes.

Before we even see a nonstick pan in the store, its coating already has been

heated to high

temperatures during manufacturing, partly to get rid of any residual PFOA. In my

opinion,

PFOA in the environment probably came from factory emissions, perhaps during the

high-

temperature phases of manufacturing. That's certainly more plausible than

blaming me for

frying an egg in my nonstick pan.

B. Hazen, acting assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of

Prevention, Pesticides

and Toxic Substances, has been quoted as saying, " The science is still coming

in. " But she

adds that eliminating PFOA " is the right thing to do for our health and our

environment. "

So should we throw away all our nonstick cookware, eschew microwaved popcorn and

stop

ordering delivery pizza? Some historical parallels exist. On the theory that the

mercury in

silver-amalgam tooth fillings causes an array of illnesses, some people have had

all their

fillings removed. And believing that aluminum causes Alzheimer's disease, some

people

have thrown away all their aluminum pots and pans. If we also throw away our

nonstick

pots and pans, how are we ever going to cook food to be chewed by our

mercury-free

teeth?

I quote from the EPA's Web page ( http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pfoa/pfoainfo.htm ):

" At

present, there are no steps that EPA recommends that consumers take to reduce

exposures to PFOA because the sources of PFOA in the environment and the

pathways by

which people are exposed are not known. Given the scientific uncertainties, EPA

has not

yet made a determination as to whether PFOA poses an unreasonable risk to the

public. At

the present time, EPA does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop

using any

consumer or industrial related products that contain PFOA. "

So please excuse me while I go fry an egg in my Teflon pan.

Posted by Carol F.