h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Teflon has been proven to have deadly effects on animals. It has been proven that humans have elevated levels of it in their blood. It may cause cancer and birth defects. The EPA says its not safe but refuses to ban it.

http://www.braytonlaw.com/news/mednews/050203_teflon.htm

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental researchorganization, has charged that Dupont, 3M, and other PFOA manufacturers knew decades ago that PFOA was present in human blood, and that it could have serious health consequences. The group issued its own report based on a review of 50,000 pages of regulatory studies and government documents obtained from the EPA; internal documents from DuPont and 3M; and an examination of a growing body of independent studies on the toxicity and environmental occurrence of PFOA.

Meanwhile, residents of Wood County, West Virginia, have sued Dupont, claiming that the company’’s plant released ammonium perfluorooctanoate, a salt in the PFOA group, into the community’’s drinking water (Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail, April 19, 2003). Judge George Hill of the state’’s 4th Circuit Court ordered Dupont to pay for the blood tests of residents who are concerned about PFOA exposure and their health.


The fumes from teflon, during normal use, kills birds.
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 and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown
number of human illnesses each year, according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

EPA says it is a hazard to children.
http://www.ewg.org/news/story.php?id=1916
The chemical used to produce Teflon coating on cookware may be hazardous to children and women of child-bearing age, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


The Chicago Tribune had a good article On Jan 18 2005 . Excerpts below.

"More than 50 years after DuPont started producing Teflon near this Ohio River town, federal officials are accusing the company of hiding information suggesting that a chemical used to make the popular stick- and stain-resistant coating might cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments.

Environmental regulators are particularly alarmed because scientists are finding perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the blood of people worldwide, and it takes years for the chemical to leave the body. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported last week that exposure even to low levels of PFOA could be harmful.

"The fact that a chemical with those non-stick properties nonetheless accumulates in people was not expected," said Charles Auer, director of the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.

The long and mostly secret history of PFOA began to unravel down the road from DuPont's Teflon plant in a West Virginia courtroom, where a Parkersburg family began asking questions in the late
1990s about a mysterious wasting disease killing their cattle.

Jim and Della Tennant suspected the culprit might lurk in a froth-covered creek that meandered past a DuPont landfill near the Teflon plant before spilling into their pasture. Their lawsuit ended with
a monetary settlement that avoided assigning blame for the dead cows, but the legal battle uncovered a trove of industry documents about PFOA.

One document detailed how DuPont scientists started warning company executives to avoid human contact with PFOA as early as 1961. Industry tests later determined the chemical accumulates in the
body, doesn't break down in the environment and causes ailments in animals, including cancer, liver damage and birth defects."

It goes on and on but you get the drift. Dupont knew for years about the health hazards of the nonstick stuff, but covered it up. Just like the tobbaco industry.


A list of other links here.
http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice/news.htm?topic=Teflon

Well, as I say, I've mentioned the toxicity of fumes caused by overheating (pyrolysis).

However, I've opted not to go into the PFOA stuff because that's due to an impurity in Teflon, and not due to Teflon itself. i.e. one could possiblyy make Teflon by another route where PFOA where this was not an ingredient.

However, it might be worthy of an Entry on its own.