Dangers of Teflon (TM)

[Sarah Fox]

Hi Thump,

>I just went to a lovely High School honors student
> science fair, where I saw a terrifying, convincing and
> excellent display of the birth defects that Teflon
> (TM) can cause.
>     Makes me not want to use Teflon powder on
> knuckles any more, regardless of how well it
> lubricates them.

I wouldn't worry about it.  Teflon poses the following two biological 
hazards, which have been known by the scientific community for a very long 
time:

(1)  Workers manufacturing Teflon are exposed to PFOA, a reactant used in 
its synthesis.  Dupont was of course nice enough not to warn their workers 
about the hazards of this chemical.  However, once pregnant factory workers 
synthesize the stuff and then go off and give birth to the next generation 
of mutant Dupont factory workers, the end product is inert, at least at room 
temperature.  Just don't drink the water anywhere near a Dupont plant. 
(FYI, PFOA does not break down in the environment, will be with us forever, 
and is circulating in measurable quantity in the blood stream of 90% of the 
folks on this list, probably including me.)

(2)  When you line the frying pan with the stuff and heat it up enough to 
scorch it, it gives off toxic fumes that are known to kill household birds 
and are likely not very healthy for unborn babies (or anyone else).  Of 
course the scorched byproducts also wind up in the food and have been known 
for a long time to be carcinogenic.  (The pans with flaking Teflon are 
doubly hazardous, since the food is also exposed to the aluminum.  Aluminum 
also causes birth defects and corrodes nicely when exposed to acidic foods 
such as tomato products.  Hint: Whatever is hazardous to birds and babies is 
also hazardous to adults, just less so.)

Anyway, short of some of Glenn Gould's warp-speed passages, I doubt anything 
is going to scorch the Teflon on a piano's knuckles.  Use it in good health. 
If you worry that PFOE and scorched Teflon are biohazards (as I do), the 
solution to the problem is to require that Dupont take effective measures to 
protect their workers from PFOA exposure, not allow the stuff to be released 
into the environment,  and ban Teflon-lined cookware.  If this can't be 
done, then yes, ban Teflon.  Ban aluminum pans too!  And MSG... and the 
multitudes of other hazardous substances that the FDA won't lift a finger to 
control -- because it is not in the financial interests of big business.  In 
fact, just ban the FDA, because they really get in the way of our health 
much more than they protect it.

But again, Teflon is perfectly safe at sub-scorching temperatures, at least 
so far as any of us know.  Once it ends up in a bag as a fine white powder, 
the damage has already been done elsewhere.

Peace,
Sarah
... a concerned scientist who has been on the MSG and aluminum soap box many 
times before