Keep Your Cool When Using Teflon

Tip for May 3rd - KEEP YOUR COOL WHEN USING TEFLON

Here is an article from the Washington Post by Robert L. Wolke. Robert L. Wolke ( http://www.robertwolke.com/ ) is professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. His latest book is "What Einstein Told His Cook 2, the Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science" (W.W. Norton, 2005). He can be reached atwolke@... .
It may be time for an update on what might be called the Teflon Terror Syndrome -- the fear of using nonstick cookware.

First, a few facts. Most nonstick coatings are made of Teflon, a patented product of DuPont Co. DuPont employs a chemical called PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid, or C8) at some stage in the process of manufacturing Teflon. PFOA has long been known to cause reproductive defects and cancer in animals. The Environmental Protection Agency concluded recently that PFOA and its close chemical relatives (often referred to generically as PFOA) "present an unreasonable risk to human health" because it has become widespread in the environment. Hence, the suspicion that nonstick cookware contains PFOA and can impart it to our foods.

It doesn't, and it can't. The EPA's rightful concern is with PFOA in the environment, not in our cookware.

Putting environmental issues aside for now, let's cut to the kitchen. While PFOA is indeed used in the Teflon manufacturing process, it is not present in the finished product. At most, traces might remain, but even those traces are locked in, because Teflon is immune to attack by any known chemical, including that battery-acid tomato sauce we have all cooked up at one time or another.

Like virtually all substances, however, Teflon will eventually succumb to heat. When Teflon becomes hot enough, its big (polymer) molecules break down into smaller (telomer) molecules and larger particles, at the same time giving off a multitude of gaseous fluorine compounds, many of which are known to be toxic or carcinogenic or both. What, then, are the options for the concerned home cook? Throw away the nonstick pans? If all of the nonstick cookware in the United States were consigned to a landfill, an even more serious environmental problem could be created. On the other hand, keeping nonstick pans but refraining from heating them is clearly untenable. The answer? Don't let them get too hot.

What is "too hot"? According to published research cited by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, fine particulates are released from Teflon pans when heated to more than about 550 degrees. These particulates have been tied to the deaths of several species of birds, whose respiratory systems are hypersensitive. (That's why canaries are used as warnings of mine gases.) Above about 680 degrees, gases that are toxic to humans and most likely carcinogenic are emitted -- but note: no PFOA has been detected. Below those temperatures, nonstick cookware is entirely safe. There is no emission of particulates or "off-gassing" of chemicals, whether toxic or benign.

Here, then, are some simple rules for continuing to enjoy the benefits of nonstick cookware in complete safety:

Never leave an empty nonstick pan unattended on a burner. (An empty pan gets hotter than a pan with something in it, even oil, because the oil absorbs and dissipates heat from the pan's surface. Empty, a frying pan can reach 750 to 800 degrees after several minutes on a high burner.)

Don't preheat a nonstick pan before adding the butter or oil for sautéing. (On uncoated metal pan surfaces, heating the pan before adding the fat reduces the food's tendency to stick. With a nonstick pan, that's unnecessary.)

Don't sear meat in a nonstick pan or on a nonstick grill. (In my opinion, Teflon-coated grills and grill pans should be banned because grilling temperatures can reach 700 degrees.)
Don't broil in a Teflon-coated pan. (Broiling temperatures can easily exceed 1,000 degrees.)
Keep your pet birds out of the kitchen and always use the exhaust hood.

For almost 50 years, PFOA and its derivatives have been used in the manufacture of thousands of products such as water- and stain-resistant treatments for fabrics and packaging materials, and firefighting foams, in addition to nonstick cookware. Today, low levels of PFOA chemicals can be found widely dispersed in the environment, including drinking water supplies and, most alarmingly, in the blood of virtually all Americans. PFOA is a man-made chemical not found in nature and is virtually indestructible once it enters the environment.

How did the PFOA get there? Certainly, no one believes that it came from nonstick cookware coatings. The prevailing opinion is that it must have come from the manufacturing plants.
DuPont acknowledges that in 1999, the baseline year for proposed PFOA factory emission reductions, its facilities around the world emitted 142,600 pounds of PFOA into the air and water, 86,800 pounds of which was from its Washington Works near Parkersburg, W.Va. On Sept. 9, 2004, DuPont agreed to pay up to $343 million to settle a class-action lawsuit arising from the contamination of drinking water in areas of West Virginia and Ohio near the Parkersburg plant.

On Jan. 25 of this year, the EPA "requested" that DuPont, the sole producer of PFOA in the United States since 3M ceased production in 2002, commit to a phased reduction in the amounts of PFOA in its products and factory emissions. In settlement of a lawsuit launched by the EPA in 2004, DuPont had already been fined $10.3 million and promised to spend an additional $6.3 million on environmental projects.

It's not over yet. DuPont, and the hundreds of manufacturers to whom it sells Teflon, can expect to see a tsunami of product liability and toxic tort lawsuits involving Teflon-coated cookware. According to Jones Day, an international law firm of more than 2,200 lawyers, class-action lawsuits with as many as 10 million plaintiffs have already been filed in 13 states.

The next word on the controversy will probably come from the courts.

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