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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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.
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.
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.
Thank you so much!
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
Actually, there is a point hovering, here.
Cook in glass. Not plastic. Answers to follow in a few years - or not.
I remember that too...everything a kid wanted to do, swim in the creek, etc, would cause you to get polio.
All chemicals are toxic in the right amount dear. Care for a nice glass of water?
Or Serutan...
Remember...Serutan spelled backwards is "Natures."
I guess you gotta be pretty old to remember that.
(Hint: think Ted Mack)
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
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
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
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