We are all familiar with the wonders of nonstick cookware. Omelets slide off pans and scrubbing stuck-on food is no longer a chore. Teflon and nonstick coatings (all spawned from Teflon) have found application in myriad other products, too. We now have stain-resistant drapery and upholstery fabrics, Stainmaster carpets, and Gore-Tex water-repellent clothing. Microwave popcorn is packaged in oil-resistant bags and pizza boxes are lined with grease-resistant coatings, as is packaging for bakery items, fast food, and candy. Firefighting foam, computer chips, phone cables, and even lamps are coated with nonstick chemicals.
It's not so surprising, then, that recent studies show 95 percent of Americans have detectable levels of Teflon-related chemicals in their blood. With so much Teflon flowing through our veins one could hope for slippery blood, less plaque build-up, and thus fewer strokes and heart attacks. Alas, that is not the case. Instead, health concerns about Teflon are coming to light. The chemicals from which nonstick coatings are made, and fumes from heated cookware, are toxic to birds and laboratory animals. Virtually no studies have verified the safety of Teflon and related chemicals among the millions of people using nonstick cookware and coated products, though several of the off-gassed chemicals are considered to be highly toxic and are persistent in the environment.
Teflon is the brand name for the synthetic chemical polytetrafluoroethylene (a term that does not easily slide off the tongue), or PTFE. It was introduced for commercial use by DuPont in 1946. The original version had the problem of being easily scratched by ordinary cooking utensils. Instead of getting trace amounts of iron from food cooked in cast-iron pots, we were getting trace amounts of Teflon. Silverstone, the next generation of nonstick cookware, is more durable than Teflon. It is chemically related to Teflon, however, as are all nonstick coatings in use today.
In 1960 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Teflon for contact with food, based on a study of cooking hamburgers on an old, worn Teflon pan. This did, in fact, result in higher levels of Teflon chemicals in the meat, but the FDA decided it was not a health risk. Since then, neither government nor industry has conducted full-scale tests on the safety of this ubiquitous consumer product.
Teflon's potential health risks to humans and animals managed to slip by our governmental regulatory agencies back then. But now the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonpartisan, nongovernmental watchdog agency conducting its own studies on Teflon-related toxins, is raising serious questions about the health risks associated with Teflon and other nonstick chemicals. Jane Houlihan, vice president of research at EWG, comments, "How could they not be in our blood? They're in such a huge range of consumer products: Teflon, Stainmaster, Gore-Tex, Silverstone. If you buy clothing that's coated with Teflon, or something else that protects it from dirt and stains, those chemicals can absorb directly through the skin." PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid, used to make Teflon) is known to cause cancer and other health problems in laboratory animals, and Houlihan is especially concerned because in people, "blood levels are too close to the levels that harm lab animals." Additional animal studies show that other chemicals used in food packaging, carpets, and clothing break down into PFOA in the environment, as does Teflon when ingested. The FDA says that PFOA in microwave popcorn bags migrates into the oil during heating, but that levels are too low to be of concern.