From what I understand the risk associated with Teflon pans is mostly with manufacturing with them, and the chemicals affecting manufacturing workers and getting in waterways, not cooking and eating from them.
The risk from heating them up is generally considered to be minor, and an uncommon accute risk, rather than something that happens regularly and that affects long term health. Adam ragusea did a very well reseached video on the subject where he spoke to experts about where the risks do and don’t lie (actually it looks like he’s done two, this is the more recent one)
But do know that buying them facilitates their manufacture, and the impact on workers and the environment is pretty horrible.
The chemicals involved are often called “forever chemicals” because they basically never break down, meaning they’ll pretty much just accumulate for as long as we manufacture things with them, which includes A LOT of different products. Rain coats are often made with them, and aren’t supposed to shed pfas or pfoas, but evidently do anyway at alarming rates, and our water sources are already fairly contaminated. This video does a really good job of covering that side of the conversation about “forever chemicals”
DuPont has poisoned the entire planet with PFAs.
3M is the inventor and supplier I thought. DuPont just bought it and sold it. And then covered it up for literal decades.
How many people had concentration that high, and how did it get that high?
I would hope it wasn’t just from using Teflon pans every day.
But with a sample size of 30k, they would be unlikely to get people who might regularly come into contact with it in a manufacturing setting.
I prefer cast iron anyway.
A big problem with teflon pans is that many people don’t realize that there’s a correct way to use them, and many incorrect ways.
Aside from the obvious stuff like using metal utensils, a huge mistake a lot of people make with teflon pans is that they heat the pan way hotter than it needs to be. Not only does this typically ruin whatever you’re trying to cook, but if you heat up an empty teflon pan past a certain temperature, it will begin to release harmful vapors. So if you put the burner on high and let your pan get hot while you spend 10 minutes preparing other things, you’re just blasting tons of vapors into your kitchen.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that low-grade teflon poisoning is way more common than we realize.
The gas products aren’t PTFE though. So it’s unlikely that PTFE entered their blood via this route.
Oh, good point, I hadn’t considered that. That does raise some questions then about how else they would’ve gotten it into their system. Would’ve been great if the snippet this image is from pointed to the study in question.
