You ever notice how everyone's always talking about getting their daily dose of something? 'I need my daily dose of vitamin C.' 'I need my daily dose of coffee.' But have you ever heard anyone say, 'I'm telling you, I need my daily dose of toxic chemicals'?
Avoid plastics and choose glass or porcelain that doesn't come from China (they have high lead content, especially in their porcelain glazes). For cookware, stainless steel or cast iron; try to avoid coatings, especially Teflon.
That's because it is actually quite a complex topic. It is not like many of the recognized harmful substances that have very obvious effects. Lead poisoning has been known since the antiquity, smoking can increase the risks of cancer by several times, asbestos causes diseases that are otherwise extremely rare, etc...
Here we are talking about things like a 15% increase in the risk of diabetes, with a confidence interval that still leaves chance as a possibility. Acute poisoning is almost unheard of, except with free radicals, making it hard to evaluate toxicity as if it was a typical poison. The article mentions how scientists are struggling, especially when we consider that there is not a single PFAS. The article also links to several studies, something I wish to see more often, traditional newspapers often don't link a single study.
So yeah, in essence a lot of science is saying PFAS are harmful to health, but the real take is that we don't really know, but it doesn't look good. And because they are "forever chemicals", it may be a good idea to try to limit usage right now, even if we don't know much, by precaution.
The polymer chains are quite long after manufacturing for teflon pans. They are largely “safe”. Don’t use metal utensils with them and don’t overheat them. That said, I personally minimize my use of teflon pans (mostly just use them for eggs since I hate cleaning eggs off)
Even if PFAS were as bad as lead (which it is not), teflon pans are probably more analogous to leaded glassware than, say, lead in gasoline or paint. Waterproof outerwear is probably analogous to leaded paint (more likely to leach and plausibly prone to contact mouths accidentally).
Maybe PFAS aren't as "bad" as lead in that the effects of lead are more noticeable in the short-term, but the widespread clinical health effects of PFAS across the entire human population is "bad." Bad is not really a useful enough word to measure the damage PFAS have done to human health. There's far more PFAS floating around inside people's houses, vehicles, clothes, foods than lead; so, I'd consider it worse than lead in terms of reach.
Eggs don't stick in cast iron if you use a little oil. Ignore all the complex advice on seasoning. Just start using a cast iron pan. At first it'll suck and stuff will stick. Over time it'll keep getting better. If you want to help it along you should heat it to the smoke point after you've scraped your egg out and let it cool naturally before cleaning.
PFAS are also in: takeout containers, grease proof paper, paper straws, fire retardants (required in furniture and children’s pajamas), rain jackets, dental floss, shampoo, cosmetics, menstrual products, cleaning products.
If you want a bedtime horror story, go get a PFAS blood test done, or ask your doctor to add it to a panel as part of an annual physical (assuming insurance coverage and reasonable cost).
If they're older than 10 years, definitely. Cast iron skillets still work, even for eggs (use olive oil instead of butter, it helps). Learn how to season them, and when (rarely) to wash them. Stainless steel for everything else.
My advice would be: continue to use them, carefully, if they’re in good shape.
Teflon skillets are coated with PTFE, which is a perfluorinated polymer — it’s plastic, not a soapy soluble substance. It’s very inert, and it seems to be mostly harmless, but it has a couple of nasty properties:
1. Manufacturing involves using heavily fluorinated surfactants, and those are genuinely nasty chemicals. Only trace amounts should remain in the pan, but I wouldn’t want to be around the factory or its waste stream.
2. It starts to decompose, slowly, at temperatures at which it’s still solid. This is obnoxious for manufacturing. It also means that if you get it too hot at home, it decomposes. I think the results of the decomposition are mostly gasses, and they seem to be especially toxic to birds. Don’t overheat it! This can be challenging, especially on some stoves (ones with big gas flames that hit the sides of the pan or crappy electric stoves with terrible temperature control).
3. It’s soft and easily damaged. Try to avoid scratching it off and eating the pieces. Eww!
You can buy “ceramic” coated pans instead. “Ceramic” in this context appears to be almost meaningless, and there are patents for “ceramic” coatings that involve fluorinated silicone compounds. This sounds worse than PTFE to me.
There are now a few brands selling explicitly PFAS-free nonstick pans, both “ceramic” and polyester-based. I’d go for the former — do you really want to eat the inevitable bits of polyester that will burn or scratch off into your food?
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 71.0 ms ] threadtl;dr:
- PFAS/forever chemicals have a lot of science saying they're harmful to health
- Government regulation is the best long term solution
- Short term solution: buy non-PFAS pans, take your own to-go containers, using water filters that filter PFAS
That's because it is actually quite a complex topic. It is not like many of the recognized harmful substances that have very obvious effects. Lead poisoning has been known since the antiquity, smoking can increase the risks of cancer by several times, asbestos causes diseases that are otherwise extremely rare, etc...
Here we are talking about things like a 15% increase in the risk of diabetes, with a confidence interval that still leaves chance as a possibility. Acute poisoning is almost unheard of, except with free radicals, making it hard to evaluate toxicity as if it was a typical poison. The article mentions how scientists are struggling, especially when we consider that there is not a single PFAS. The article also links to several studies, something I wish to see more often, traditional newspapers often don't link a single study.
So yeah, in essence a lot of science is saying PFAS are harmful to health, but the real take is that we don't really know, but it doesn't look good. And because they are "forever chemicals", it may be a good idea to try to limit usage right now, even if we don't know much, by precaution.
Some are in wide use, some unclear, some unused. With a wide variety of elements in the various compounds.
It is like saying ‘plastic bad’. Which plastic? What is the definition of bad?
Yeah don’t eat plastics, but the difference between styrene, PTFE, and HDPE on any axis one would care to define is crazy big.
Think about it this way: plastic is the IoT of materials. It's just there to act as a bitter lesson about man's hubris and greed.
Even if PFAS were as bad as lead (which it is not), teflon pans are probably more analogous to leaded glassware than, say, lead in gasoline or paint. Waterproof outerwear is probably analogous to leaded paint (more likely to leach and plausibly prone to contact mouths accidentally).
Eggs don't stick in cast iron if you use a little oil. Ignore all the complex advice on seasoning. Just start using a cast iron pan. At first it'll suck and stuff will stick. Over time it'll keep getting better. If you want to help it along you should heat it to the smoke point after you've scraped your egg out and let it cool naturally before cleaning.
https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/i...
Teflon skillets are coated with PTFE, which is a perfluorinated polymer — it’s plastic, not a soapy soluble substance. It’s very inert, and it seems to be mostly harmless, but it has a couple of nasty properties:
1. Manufacturing involves using heavily fluorinated surfactants, and those are genuinely nasty chemicals. Only trace amounts should remain in the pan, but I wouldn’t want to be around the factory or its waste stream.
2. It starts to decompose, slowly, at temperatures at which it’s still solid. This is obnoxious for manufacturing. It also means that if you get it too hot at home, it decomposes. I think the results of the decomposition are mostly gasses, and they seem to be especially toxic to birds. Don’t overheat it! This can be challenging, especially on some stoves (ones with big gas flames that hit the sides of the pan or crappy electric stoves with terrible temperature control).
3. It’s soft and easily damaged. Try to avoid scratching it off and eating the pieces. Eww!
You can buy “ceramic” coated pans instead. “Ceramic” in this context appears to be almost meaningless, and there are patents for “ceramic” coatings that involve fluorinated silicone compounds. This sounds worse than PTFE to me.
There are now a few brands selling explicitly PFAS-free nonstick pans, both “ceramic” and polyester-based. I’d go for the former — do you really want to eat the inevitable bits of polyester that will burn or scratch off into your food?
This seems to be sold for bakeware, not pans.