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Comment by razodactyl | Hacker News Reader

I remember being the "general public" unaware of PFAS. Anything "non-stick" contains it, you realise that it's everywhere in modern society.

Blissful ignorance was nice while it lasted.

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It was intentional ignorance. 3M and DuPont knew these chemicals were in human blood samples for decades.

"How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/3m-forever-che...

Totally. Same for Monsonto and their glyphosate.

"Merchants of Poison: How Monsanto Sold the World on a Toxic Pesticide" https://foe.org/resources/merchants-of-poison/

I'm not disagreeing, but Glyphosate is not a pesticide. You're talking about the pesticids that are forbidden in europe but allowed in the States and forced in Canada/Mexico (i have seen a documentary about what the US force on Mexico to allow them in Nafta, honestly Trump wanting to pull out of Nafta was a great, great idea for Mexicans medium to long-term).

Glyphosate cause other issue, it isn't a neurotoxic (most pesticids are, that's why weed and tobacco were used as natural pesticids before chemistry). It only work as a chlorophylia suppressor, an EDC for plants if i may (it's not really, but close enough). In small quantities, it does not seems to have any effect on human hormones. But while the half-life is "only" a few months, the quantities used (especially in gardening and arboriculture) mean the human exposition is stronger than in tests, but also that huge amount are washed into rivers where it kills plant life and ultimately fishes.

Also it push non-productive GMO, and in my opinion, non-productive GMO (basically more water efficient plants, stuff like golden rice) should be avoided.

Glyphosate may not be a pesticide but it is suspected of harming bees in subtle ways.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/bee-alert-is-a-controversial-...

Yes, but the issues once again seems to stem from overexposition and continuous usage (in gardening and arboriculture). I'm not saying we whould continue to use it as we are, we ought to limit it, but reasonable usage exists, like to enhance direct seeding under a vegetative cover (basically you kill your winter vegetative cover with glyphosate and a roller, wait a week, seed under the dying cover). You don't even have to use glyphosate here to be honest, but small quantities really facilitate the work and allow to use a diversified cover.

We should ban glyphosate in gardening and arboriculture though.

Significant other was studying removal methods for those chemicals and as soon as I learned enough about them, I threw all of my non-stick pans away.

Learning to coat steel pans in oil to make them non-stick-ish has been a great help.

> Learning to coat steel pans in oil to make them non-stick-ish has been a great help.

Doesn't this involve cooking oil into harmful polymers?

I use high-temperature oils in general so I’m not sure if those get turned into harmful polymers. Do you know of any studies on that?

I found this article to be interesting and well sourced: https://examine.com/articles/are-cast-iron-pans-unsafe/

It doesn't find documented evidence of harmful effects of oil seasoning. Buy likewise for Teflon coating in normal heat conditions.

What I didn't expect is the part about iron leaching and its effects!

Eggs over-easy on steel all-clad are the bane of my existence on some mornings.

Heat up pan (higher heat) until water droplets start sliding around instead of sizzling out and then add a little bit of oil. Crack the eggs and cover for a bit. When the whites are all done, scrape the eggs off the pan and they should come off mostly clean.

Well seasoned cast iron is no problem for eggs. Keep your steel for acidic foods.

They’re also in your furniture, your takeout containers, your paper cups, paper straws, fire retardant fabrics (required for all children’s sleepwear!)

Two helping words: Cast Iron.

The original non-stick

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