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Comment by jiggywiggy | Hacker News Reader

It's not just teflon. It's most likely also going to be it's successors.

Its going to deemed safe for a while till it's not.

Most properties desired while at the same time being cheap and durable will leak and will not play nice and with our cells or hormone system.

Especially because the goal of most of these chemical is to be cheaper the cheap. (Otherwise we would just use glass)

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Yes agreed. Teflon is shorthand for all of the fluorinated hydrocarbons in my mind. I know they’re not identical but they’re close enough and most if not all will end up being found to be toxic.

The problem is a lack of a precautionary principle— manufacturers can change one molecule and re-market their product and groups like the EPA have to do extensive research on each new variant to show danger. Molecules are assumed safe and marketable until shown otherwise by underfunded agencies. It’s insane.

>The problem is a lack of a precautionary principle— manufacturers can change one molecule and re-market their product and groups like the EPA have to do extensive research on each new variant to show danger. Molecules are assumed safe and marketable until shown otherwise by underfunded agencies. It’s insane.

I'm skeptical that would have made a difference. According to wikipedia teflon pans were introduced in the 1950s, and it was only until the last decade or so that the real dangers (ie. not just the fumes from it overheating) were known.

They are not close enough! You are destroying your messaging and activism by combining them in this way.

Tell a manufacturer "stop adding Teflon it's not safe" and they will laugh at you. Tell them "stop adding PFAS it's not safe" and they might actually listen.

> Teflon is shorthand for all of the fluorinated hydrocarbons in my mind.

That's a VERY un-smart thing to do!

Saying they are the same because of the molecule is like complaining salt is unsafe before it has chlorine in it.

Honestly I have no idea why people think we're going to find a safe and equally effective alternative. Most of the PFAS in use are powerful surfactants that change the surface tension of water, break up the lipids in cell membranes, and otherwise interfere with almost all the chemical processes that make life life. Everything from cell walls to capillary action are directly effected by these molecules. The same features that cause them to bioaccumulate so well give them their incredible industrial properties.

This is what I said to my wife. She got some new pans that called themselves green and healthy because they weren't teflon. They made our food taste like plastic chemicals. I said to her that the way this works is that teflon was proven to be bad, so they just move onto some other compound that hasn't yet proven to be bad. At a certain point I'd rather say better the devil we know, or stainless steel and cast iron.

I switched to stainless steel pans and literally have no idea why I ever used "anti stick" (that always ends up sticking after a few uses).

The dishwasher has no problem cleaning my pans, no matter how sticky stuff gets.

I have been saying this for far too long. Surprisingly, after many legal battles the big chems like DuPont still grows every year. Guess that most people pay no attention to these subtle killers.

Simple clay and glass would work better but cost more and require more careful handling. Both of those prevent cost optimizers from considering them

Yeah and most ceramic solutions you have to be careful with the paint they use. There have been cases of issues in slow cookers.

Glass is safest and extremely long lasting but indeed more difficult to work with.

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