Posted on 01/26/2007 3:42:45 PM PST by blam
Heating releases cookware chemicals
Janet Raloff
Nonstick coatings on fry pans and microwave-popcorn bags can, when heated, release traces of potentially toxic perfluorinated chemicals into the air and the food being cooked, a new study suggests. Although the chemicals aren't subject to any regulatory restriction and have uncertain toxicity, the researchers conducting the study suggest that people at least run kitchen-exhaust fans when using these products. A 2005 industry study found no such releases.
Chemist Kurunthachalam Kannan and his New York State government team, based in Albany, performed the tests on four brands of nonstick fry pans and two brands of microwave popcorn. Their findings appear online and in an upcoming Environmental Science & Technology.
The scientists heated new fry pans of various brands on a 250°C hot plate for 20 minutes. About half the samples released high amounts of gaseous fluorotelomer alcohols (SN: 10/11/03, p. 238: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20031011/note17.asp) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The team heated two pans three more times to see if the chemical releases would fall as pans age. That occurred with one pan but not with the other.
The team also detected PFOA in water boiled for 10 minutes in two of the five pans tested.
When the researchers popped corn in the microwave bags, gaseous emissions contained low amounts of PFOA and high amounts of fluorotelomer alcohols. The oily coatings left inside the bags contained the chemicals as well, the team reports. The group didn't reveal the brands of nonstick pans or popcorn bags that it tested.
Cookware manufacturers have pledged to phase out PFOA, used to make some nonstick coatings, by 2015. The chemical is a suspected carcinogen, nervous system poison, and estrogen mimic found in the blood of people worldwide (SN: 3/25/06, p. 190: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060325/note17.asp; 12/2/06, p. 366: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061202/note16.asp).
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So we shouldn't cook food (or use easily-cleanable pots!) because we MIGHT release A LITTLE BIT of (maybe NOT EVEN TOXIC) chemicals into the food?
We're all gonna die!
My great grandmother refused to cook in aluminium. She would use it for food storage but refused to cook in it.
That's a lot hotter than they are normally used.
Wonder if the food industry's lobbyist will try to keep this as quiet as possible?
If this were actually dangerous, blam, I would be dead.
Use iron cookware and you won't need Geritol!
And if you eat 25 bags a day for 47 years you will have a .02% of developing colon cancer.
Your frying pan can kill you. But only if your wife finds you guilty.
"Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20031011/note17.asp)"
Is this saying that for us to find out which ones are dangerous to our health, we have to subscribe to this publication?
So what prompted these non-stick pans to come into existence? The banishment of LARD AND COOKING OILS!
Then again, I'm the kind of guy who can taste whether you've got plastic or copper pipes in your house, and microwave popcorn nauseates me because it smells rancid.
"So what prompted these non-stick pans to come into existence?"
The automatic dishwasher. We all got lazy and refuse to scour pots and pans with food stuck to them.
LOL!
If people learned how to cook and clean their pots properly, we wouldn't even have this discussion. I'm an avid cook, both indoor and outdoor and I don't use a single nonstick pan.
All of mine are stainless steel with iron bases. Pretty easy to clean assuming you are minding what you are doing both during cooking and the cleanup phase.
Personally, I support your freedom to ingest toxic chemicals. Have fun.
My letter to the editor:
So we shouldn't cook food (or use easily-cleanable pots!) because we MIGHT release A LITTLE BIT of (maybe NOT EVEN TOXIC) chemicals into the food?
SO we should vent (expensive already heated or air conditioned and humidified indoors air) from the kitchen (wasting BILLIONS in heating oil, gas, and electrically generated BTU's ...
All because a COMMON chemical found worldwide is merely SUSPECTED of being linked to worldwide rates of exposure.
A practical question from this engineer:
If the chemical is found in trace amounts in humans worldwide,
and US-built coated pots ARE NOT capable of contaminating
(1) people worldwide who don't use coated American pots, and
(2) people worldwide who can't afford US pots (the vast majority)
(3) people worldwide and in the US clean their pots BETTER (yielding less food poisoning from cleaner pots that are less scarred by scraping and dirt!)
... then WHY are our US companies being forced to abandon a proven helpful chemical?
The results of this ruling are dirtier pots and MORE deaths from food poisoning, millions in development and research wasted, more millions is changing chemicals that produce a worse job of protecting the pots from scarring, billions more wasted as consumer replace torn up pots not well protected by the new chemicals. And NO GOOD.
Yeah, but it's ~my~ cookware.
I only use mine at temperatures high enough to scramble an egg. I have my trusty cast iron skillets for the hot stuff.
Bump for later reading
Flushing the toilet with the lid up doesn't do wonders for the surrounding area, either.
Hmm, interesting, because aluminum is a reactive container material, and storing foods, particularly acidic foods in such a container can impart a bad taste and discolor the food. That might be one of the reasons she refused to use it for cooking.
But AL and Cu are both excellent conductors of heat. Copper pans are typically lined with tin to prevent contact with the copper, and these days most aluminum pans have some coating, which brings us to the topic at hand.
It was interesting to note that some pans aged well, and did not release anymore chemicals. Since this was a short term test, as is inferred from the article; what would hundreds of uses do to "cure" the non-stick coating?
Water is toxic in large enough quantities.
Trace amounts of these chemicals are meaningless.
Cast iron. It's the only way to go. I don't like the nonstick ones, and my mom used to tell me not to cook in aluminum, especially anything acid.
I love Cast Iron, but for me the upkeep has not been worth it, and I have not found as big of a tradeoff with stainless steel except for high heat applications. But for that I have a cast iron grill/griddle that I use outdoors. Won't touch aluminum pots/pans.
I got rid of all aluminum food-touching-stuff several years back when I read that they found excessive amounts of aluminum in the brains of (deceased) Altzeheimer patients.
Also, I will NEVER buy food-touching-stuff from countries like China or Mexico.
Pots and pans should all be cast iron.
:-)
Actually, the chemicals that are released are deadly to parrots and other birds. Accidently overheating a teflon pan will kill your parrot quick as a canary in a coal mine.
We only cook on stainless and cast iron (although I do have 1 non-stick pan for crepes only, and that one is never heated above medium).
And yes, we do have a parrot, so I'm not going to chance it one way or another.
[BTW: Never use a scour pad (steel wool or synthetic (ScotchBrite) to clean seasoned cookware. Just remove any particulate matter and clean with a very mild soap. re-oil (lightly) and store. Pre-Heating will take care of any germs/bacteria]
For pots, I really like my Corning glass. I can see what's going on w/out having to lift the lid. And while glass isn't non-stick per se, it's better than non seasoned cookware as far as cleanup goes.
My cookwear is almost all black with carbon. The way it should be.
When a hat gets good and worn-in, it "has salt."
I guess when a pan becomes seasoned, it "has carbon."
:-)
Years ago when I would go into Sears Roebuck (I haven't been in ages) you could smell the popcorn cooking and it smelled great. Now whenever I smell popcorn (like this afternoon at the car wash, or at the movie) it has a nasty revolting smell. Is it plastic that I am smelling?
Well, those nonstick pots release something since it can kill small domestic birds like parakeets...or so bird owners are warned, anyway.
Seasoning cookware. http://www.fantes.com/seasoning.htm
Personally I prefer to do it over a fire.
Sounds like the manufacturers of kitchen exhaust fans are behind this study.
That is what I was thinking ...that's pretty darn hot and way beyond normal cooking temperatures. 482F?
I do the oven method.
I still have my Aunt's cast iron pans. Started using them a bit and found if properly seasoned...they're better than the non-stick.
If it's microwave popcorn, butter flavour, I'd say it's the margarine gone bad, or the plastic in the bag. It's vile, disgusting and nausea inducing.
Here's the article you wanted. I'm a subscriber. Nothing is free.
Week of Oct. 11, 2003; Vol. 164, No. 15 , p. 238
Scrutinized chemicals linger in atmosphere
Ben Harder
Don't look up now, but new research indicates that industrial chemicals called fluorotelomer alcohols, or FTOHs, may remain suspended in the air for several weeks on average. Their longevity in the atmosphere suggests that they may widely disperse before degrading into durable environmental contaminants that have been found far from industrialized areas.
FTOHs are ingredients in many consumer products, including paints, polishes, adhesives, waxes, and stain-repellent coatings. Gradually, the chemicals escape into the air. Some scientists presume that FTOHs and related alcohols break down into extremely durable, so-called perfluorinated chemicals, which are widespread in the environment and have recently been found to accumulate in and harm animals (SN: 8/30/03, p. 142: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/20030830/note15.asp).
To determine whether FTOHs have the wherewithal to spread far and wide, Scott Mabury of the University of Toronto and his colleagues at the university and at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich., simulated natural chemical interactions that would tend to degrade FTOHs in the atmosphere. The breakdown rates the team measured for three different FTOHs suggest that the humanmade substances remain intact and airborne for about 20 days, the scientists report in the Sept. 1 Environmental Science and Technology.
Mabury and his colleagues estimate that FTOHs could therefore travel about 7,000 kilometers before breaking down. Further study is needed to determine whether the breakdown products include hardy perfluorinated contaminants, they say.
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In the late 4o's my parents were certain that aluminum pans were the cause of polio. Plus swimming in the local creek, bubble gum.....oh well forget it.
They can have my nonstick frying pan...
I read that Teflon was dangerous to your health at least 20 years ago. I, too, use stainless for everything except cooking oatmeal, which is sticky, and frying eggs....that's when I pull the Teflon out.
The dish ware is loaded with lead too.
My dad still swears that cold air causes colds. :)
We do the oven method too.
I think the aluminum - Alzheimer's link has been debunked. But, I still don't use alum cooking ware.
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