The first attempts at making non-stick Teflon pans had some deadly consequences. The tetrafluoroethylene could depolymerize at high temperatures. In gaseous form it is a potent neurotoxin. The phenomenon was discovered the hard way when all the employees of a bakery using the early teflon pans died when they became overheated. Later improvement in the "end groups" reduced the probability of the depolymerizing.
Nice story on Teflon. IIRC the discovery of Teflon was pretty much an accident too, involving some pressurized tanks of a some fluoridated gas which spontaneously
polymerized (not "depolymerized).
Reminds me of a long ago story in Analytical Chemistry about a strong taste appearing sporadically in ready-made cake mixes which baffled the flavour chemists.
Apparently some of the test batches had used iodized salt, which ended up creating trace quantities of iodoform during the baking process.
The reason it was so hard to nail down was
a)not all of the batches had used iodized salt
b)not all of the iodized salt created iodoform
c)only about 25% of the population had a particular sensitivity to iodoform.
Oh, the things that make you wonder!
Cheers!