Teflon is not a dangerous PFAS. That's why it's downvoted.
Also no, Teflon cannot stay in your body. It's not available for biouptake. The non-reactivity of Teflon is it's entire point.
This is why Teflon coated pans are safe. You can break off pieces of it and consume it and it will be guaranteed to pass through your body.
Also further, "PFAS" has been turned into a buzzword when in fact it groups a huge number of chemicals, some of which are quite dangerous (and largely already banned) and some of which are completely safe. If you just say "PFAS" it's clear you don't actually know what you're talking about.
"If you just say "PFAS" it's clear you don't actually know what you're talking about."
That's funny, because clearly you don't know what you're talking about, or how PTFE is made.
I never said the PTFE was the problem. PTFE was manufactured using PFOA. DuPont replaced PFOA with GenX. We know PFOA is linked to various health concerns. We don't have much info on GenX, but the EPA has issued cautionary guidelines on potential health impact.
Also it's ironic how the person who successfully proved how Teflon goes unprocessed by body's food processing has internal organs and blood full of PFAS that is pumped into the environment as a byproduct of Teflon manufacturing.
Overheating a Teflon pan is pretty difficult to do, and even then it's not like it suddenly exposes your body to dangerous chemicals if you continue to use the pan after it's been overheated once.
It's not that difficult to heat the pan to 280 degrees by accident, which is all that's required, no? At that point you feel sick and your pet birds start to drop dead.
Note I said "after". And you'd have to leave it at 280 degrees for quite some time to get the temporary effects. Some good ventilation and taking the pan off the fire will end the effects.
If I'm remembering the statistics correctly, despite the millions of Teflon pans in the US, there is less than 1 case of people getting Teflon flu from cookware per year. It's just not something that happens. Lightning strikes humans more often.
The probability of me leaving pan on high heat by accident: high, done this multiple times. The probability of me reporting any sickness as teflon flu: zero because I had no idea that Teflon could cause anything like this until yesterday when I looked this up.
And we don't know anything about long-term effects.
Anyway it's pointless because no matter how safe teflon is the side products of its manufacturing should already be enough of concern to render it illegal but somehow no one cares
Fluorine is toxic. I don't care if you bind it to carbon and think it'll probably never break bonds in the vicinity of humans. Get that shit away from me, and especially don't coat my cookware with it!
If you think fluorine is toxic in any compound, let me tell you about dihydrogen monoxide. It’s found in over 90% of human tumor cells, and of course serves as a solvent to bring ionized fluorine into the body.
You are not responding to the best possible interpretation of my comment. It is obvious that literally everything in sufficient quantity will kill you.
I would rather drink a quantity of hydrogen peroxide, than an equal quantity of fluorine. Also, hydrogen peroxide is a compound, fluorine is an element.
I would rather breathe pressurized oxygen, than pressurized fluorine.
The lethal dose for hydrogen peroxide is 40 times that of fluoride. Think about a glass of hydrogen peroxide. Now imagine 1/40 of that, a tiny bit at the bottom of the glass. That's an equivalent amount.
> Also, hydrogen peroxide is a compound, fluorine is an element
That's my point: compounds can be poisonous, but the toxicity of an element depends on the compound it's in. PTFE is a compound that's non-toxic. It just doesn't react with anything in the body.
Carbon and fluorine form a really strong bond. This is both why F2 reacts with so much, and why PTFE reacts with so little.
This poster got perfect scores in all chemistry exams in high school. Since you've vapidly ad hominem'd me on authority, now let's hear what makes you the chemistry expert.
It’s kinda hilariously obvious. Compounds have different properties than their elements. Fluoride ion are safe enough to use in toothpaste, and protect teeth in fact. CFCs replaced ammonia as a refrigerant, because it is much much safer and inert in the absence of high energy photons. We still use HCFCs, and the F in there is for fluorine-carbon bonds.
The health effects of Teflon decay (only by overheating, really) are not caused by fluorine. They are caused by the decay products, tetrafluoroethylene and difluorocarbene. This has nothing to do with the fluorine part: you get symptoms of poisoning 4-8 hours later from those vapors, not like the immediate chemical burns of fluorine gas.
Compounds are just plain different than their elements. Mercury is pretty bad for you, but you could swallow a pure sample of mercury sulfide and nothing would happen to you. You have a little knowledge of chemistry but haven’t internalized the theories.
Also: good test scores in high school means you’re a perfect candidate for Dunning-Kruger. Anyway your internal model of chemicals is as a collection of atoms which are kinda like Legos, instead of thinking of bonds and electrical fields.
Hydrogen doesn’t cause toxicity in our bodies but I’m fairly sure oxygen does quite readily.
Water does as well. Many people experience mild forms of water toxicity, and although it’s rare, it can be fatal too. Oxygen is pretty dangerous stuff, you really do need to moderate intake and allow buffers in your body from having too much of it.
Also no, Teflon cannot stay in your body. It's not available for biouptake. The non-reactivity of Teflon is it's entire point.
This is why Teflon coated pans are safe. You can break off pieces of it and consume it and it will be guaranteed to pass through your body.
Also further, "PFAS" has been turned into a buzzword when in fact it groups a huge number of chemicals, some of which are quite dangerous (and largely already banned) and some of which are completely safe. If you just say "PFAS" it's clear you don't actually know what you're talking about.