Heating Releases Cookware Chemicals

Science News ^ | 1-27-2007 | Janet Raloff

[EBH]

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.

[Don W]

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.

[blam]

"Is this saying that for us to find out which ones are dangerous to our health, we have to subscribe to this publication?"

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.

If you have a comment on this article that you would like considered for publication in Science News, send it to editors@sciencenews.org. Please include your name and location.

[Hardcorps]

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.

[WV Mountain Mama]

They can have my nonstick frying pan...

[toldyou]

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.

[blam]

"Also, I will NEVER buy food-touching-stuff from countries like China or Mexico. "

The dish ware is loaded with lead too.

[WV Mountain Mama]

My dad still swears that cold air causes colds. :)

[WV Mountain Mama]

We do the oven method too.

[blam]

"Cook in steel or cast iron. Incidentally, has anyone settled the question of some connection between aluminum ingestion and Alzheimer or other nerve disorders?"

I think the aluminum - Alzheimer's link has been debunked. But, I still don't use alum cooking ware.

[toldyou]

Thank you so much!

[Fierce Allegiance]

Yep! I never use aluminum because of the alzheimer link. No coated pans either. Just stainless for me. Cleaning is no biggie,, scotch brite pads work great

[Robert A Cook PE]

Cook in steel or cast iron. Incidentally, has anyone settled the question of some connection between aluminum ingestion and Alzheimer or other nerve disorders?

I thought it was copper ingestion from breathing the trace metal vaporized from the copper-covered welding wires used in MIG welding?

[patton]

Actually, there is a point hovering, here.

Cook in glass. Not plastic. Answers to follow in a few years - or not.

[blam]

"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."

I remember that too...everything a kid wanted to do, swim in the creek, etc, would cause you to get polio.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Personally, I support your freedom to ingest toxic chemicals. Have fun.

All chemicals are toxic in the right amount dear. Care for a nice glass of water?

[daler]

"Use iron cookware and you won't need Geritol!

Or Serutan...

Remember...Serutan spelled backwards is "Natures."

I guess you gotta be pretty old to remember that.

(Hint: think Ted Mack)

[nascarnation]

In the 1950s I played with mercury as a kid, in a home filled with leaded paint and asbestos tile, ate lots of fish from Lake Erie (fed by the infamous Cuyahoga River)
and breathed air from the steel mills of the "flats" of Cleveland and the carbonaceous diesel exhaust of city buses. As a teenager I pumped thousands of gallons of leaded gasoline working at a service station.

I'm not sweatin' a little teflon in my omelet, LOL

[Fzob]

Our friendly lawyers are seeking a class action lawsuit claiming PFOA is a hazard.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2005-07-19-teflon_x.htm

[Fzob]

Our friendly lawyers are seeking a class action lawsuit claiming PFOA is a hazard.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2005-07-19-teflon_x.htm