Dangers of Teflon (TM)

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hey why be born in the first place, life is the real killer.
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sarah Fox" <sarah@graphic-fusion.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: Dangers of Teflon (TM)


> 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
>
>
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