--- The Fool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/es.php
"In two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart
My thought when I read that in the article was that the only way one could achieve the temperatures they cite would be to put an _empty_ pot or pan on the stovetop and turn the control up to "high". Water, whether present as a liquid or as moisture in the food, has such a high specific heat capacity that most of the heat energy will go into heating the food, and since the cookware cannot be at a substantially higher temperature than its contents, there is no way in a real cooking situation that the cookware could reach such a high temperature within "two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop." About the only way such temperatures are likely to be reached in an actual kitchen is if someone starts cooking something and then goes off and forgets about it and it boils dry (and shortly afterwards the shriek of the smoke alarm will probably refresh their memory).
and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths
Documented, as in the example below?
and an unknown number of human illnesses each year,
Which "unknown number" _could_ be zero: we don't know without documentation.
according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG)..."
>From the 'offgas' page: "...The lowest temperature at which nonstick coatings have been reported to kill birds in a peer-reviewed study is 396�F (202�C) [3]. In May 1998, poultry researchers at the University of Missouri recorded 52 percent mortality in 2400 chicks within three days of the birds being placed into floor pens with new PTFE-coated heat lamp bulbs. After ruling out bacterial infections like E. Coli and Salmonella, or toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, the scientists finally linked the chick deaths to offgas products from the PTFE-coated bulbs. All of the chicks examined after death had lung lesions and moderate to severe pulmonary edema consistent with �PTFE toxicosis.�..."
Several other large bird die-offs that were related to these heating lamps are also noted.
Completely different situation from cooking.
Also, the above study specified that the bulbs used were "new". I'd suspect that the highest rate of offgasing would occur when the bulbs were brand new and drop off significantly after the more volatile components were exhausted. I wonder if they checked the rate of offgasing as a function of the number of hours the bulbs had been used, and if they repeated the study using bulbs which had been "burned-in" for various periods before being used in proximity to live chicks?
The list of offgas chemicals is quite a nasty cast of characters.
In what quantities, and what concentrations are likely to occur in the air in a typical kitchen at various distances from the stove?
-- Ronn! :)
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