Teflon Tale

Smart Teflon non-stick cook wares, what is that about them?
They help us to cook fast, saves energy and makes the whole process hassle free. Apart from this proverbial applications Teflon products are also used in apparels, automotive fabrics, exterior coatings, home furnishings, upholstery, sealants, cables and in semiconductor manufacturing.

Our fellow non-stick cook wares are usually coated with PTFE (Polytetrafluroethyelene) fluropolymer and sometimes with other fluropolymers over metal surface. We might be ingesting these fluropolymers along with the food we cook on them. Do we have PTFE on our daily menu?

PTFE has a melting point above 300 degrees and it will start to fume out above 250 degrees, usually we don’t cook at these temperatures knowingly, but broiling and use of fat/oil, frying meat etc can very well happen at these temperatures. Even though the raw material manufacturer doesn’t recommend these practices, how many of us are aware of this; when we can get a plenty of non-stick frying pans in this country. These degraded fumes are lethal to birds (claims the Teflon manufacturer) and can lead to flu-like symptoms in humans.

Well, then we have this PFOA (Perflurooctanic acid), also known as C8 used to make PTFE which is a likely carcinogen. Till date, PFOA don’t have any practical alternative. It can accumulate in human blood, has a very long half life in humans and does not break down in the environment. PFOA is used only during manufacture of PTFE and a traceable amount of it remains in the finished product, how bad is that traceable amount is a question mark.

In 2004, a renowned company in US settled 300 million dollars in a law suit filed by the residents living around its chemical plant producing PTFE, for contaminating the drinking water in that locality. Access to literatures, analysis reports on PTFE and PFOA are very limited. These chemicals are still undergoing rigorous safety reviews across various countries and organizations.

And to conclude, we still don’t know how bad PTFE and PFOA are.