It seems I shouldn't have posted this without context

TL;DW

  • yes the video is (at least partially) about Teflon, hence the cynical title

  • no, Teflon (or generally big Fluoropolymers) are not the problem. Ingesting them does nothing to you, because as long, chemically inert polymers they just pass through you from one end to the other

  • The problem are perfluoroalkyl acids: C8 (PFOA) and later substitutes such as C6/GenX, PFOS, PFHA, PFHxS which are chemicals used to start the Teflon polymerization. They are short-chained carbon-fluorine molecules that coincidentally mimic the structure of fatty acids, thus can accumulate in our bodies without a way for our bodies to break them down.

  • These chemicals leach into the environment from factories and accumulate in everything, to the point that the whole water cycle has been contaminated (yes that shit comes down everywhere with the rain)

  • There is conclusive proof that PFOA exposure is linked to a number of organ damage and cancers, particularly testicular cancer and kidney cancer, with likely links to lung and pancreatic cancer not reflected in the study due to survivor bias (they died before the study was concluded)

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[–] 84 points 1 year ago (6 children)

For anyone who can't be bothered to watch the entire 1 hour episode: It's not really about frying pans.

The PFAs are everywhere by now. Butter on a pan will do jack shit to save you. It's really fucked up. You should watch the video.

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  • [–] [S] 52 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Yup your most likely sources are stuff like:

    • your water supply
    • any coated paper materials coming into contact with (hot) food and beverages, eg. Burger wrappers, coated paper coffee cups, microwave popcorn, pizza boxes, etc.
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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Firefighting foam used at airports. Every airport, every military base with an airstrip practices routinely with PFAS. They are still doing it.

    It is everywhere. Water, soil, rain and you.

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  • [–] 68 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    We did not do anything. A very small group of people indeed knowingly and willingly poisoned the earth for a bunch of monies.

    You'd think they'd be jailed for that, but here we are

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    [–] 46 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    "We poisoned the planet"

    Fuck off! Unscrupulous greed industrialists poisoned the planet knowingly and tried to hide or minimize the fact from the public.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I'm curious where this money actually went. Like which specific people have it right now.

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  • [–] 26 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    Which is wild because if you knew how to properly use oil/butter and a cast iron pan... they won't stick to your pan.

    We literally created a world of idiots that don't know how to do anything.

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  • [–] 43 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    you are so much smarter than everyone else

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  • [–] 29 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Look it's not my fault people didn't get an opportunity to learn these skills because they were instead sold cheap, poisonous bullshit. Why would anyone learn if they didn't have to because there was an easier, cheaper way? It's not really the fault of individuals who don't know any better when society isn't going out it's way to teach them such skills. Hell, I didn't learn this until I was in my early thirties, because my parents had used teflon cookware all while I was growing up.

    But, please, read it more as me thinking I'm better than everyone else rather than someone who got lucky enough to learn these skills eventually who is disappointed that we were sold poison as an 'easy' solution.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    While I agree and have switched to cast iron and stainless steel, it’s not enough. No pfas were used in the manufacturing of my cookware, plus I expect to save money by never having to replace it. However the documentary starts showing how ubiquitous the chemicals are and for how many uses. While we all absolutely need better cookware choices, it’s only a drop in the bucket of so many consumer and industrial products.

    Our part includes increased awareness and better choices for many things we come into contact with every day. However it’s critical to better regulate, to hold companies accountable for the damage they’ve done, bring them to justice for impact on public health and coverups, etc …. And that’s not just unlikely but really impossible

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Cast iron is generally safe but not entirely without risk. Old pans are sometimes made with lead and some newer cheap pans from sketchy sources are made with cadmium and/or lead

    Generally if you get like a lodge or whatever you’re fine though. Biggest risk there is that it leeches iron into your food, which is usually beneficial unless you have some uncommon health concerns

    A stainless steel pan are also generally safe but have similar issues: low quality pans and excessively scratched pans can leech nickel and chromium. 304 and 316 stainless ($$$) are more resilient against this issue. Stainless takes a bit more technique than cast iron for stuff like eggs and fish but it’s not that tricky (preheat pan, add fat/oil when hot, basically). It is also far more responsive to changing temperature (rather than retaining it) and much lighter so it’s easier to use for sautéing and such. Cast iron is superior when heat retention is needed: stews, soups, curries, roasts, etc

    Ceramic coated cookware is a mess. Some did use PFAS/PFOA and still does, some ceramics have lead and cadmium, and some coatings just suck. I got one pan to experiment with that was lead/cadmium/pfoa/pfas free but the nonstick properties dulled after 2-3 months of daily use. It was not scratched or chipped; I took care to not use metal implements or wash it with abrasives. I did use high heat at times though which potentially degraded it. It was like $50 too. Researching online after I see there are “good” ones for $80, fuck spending that on a single pan.

    I’ll stick with cast iron and stainless steel. Can use metal utensils, covers basically every scenario, and cheaper. To be clear, “well sourced” doesn’t mean expensive. A 10” lodge cast iron skillet is $20 online. A tramontina 12” 304 stainless frying pan is $35.

    Of course if you ever eat at restaurants none of this matters as they’re generally using the cheapest aluminum and steel pans they can get that are beat to utter shit

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm so happy that my parents taught me to always use cast iron pans, or at least nonstick with a ceramic layer instead of PFAS

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    [–] 20 points 1 year ago (18 children)

    Got myself a set of ceramic coated pans just a few days ago. Am very happy with them. No PFAS at all and much better anti stick than my old teflon pan.

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    [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    They can make Teflon without the forever chemicals. They choose to make it the way they do because it is cheap and easy to scale. Rather than develop better solutions that don't poison us they choose easy money and are rewarded for it.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    Yay, my generations lead poisoning. Fuck capitalism

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    To be fair only like 0.1% (yes I made this number up) of all Fluoropolymers end up in frying pans.

    Most of it is used in industry, building, medicine...

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    For more information about this subject I recommend watching this documentary by independent journalism platform Zembla. That talks in detail about the company DuPont (Chemours) and PFOA. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3kzHc-eV88&pp=ygULWmVtYmxhIHBmb2E%3D

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    Use stainless steel and cast iron and nothing else

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    [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    The original thumbnail had a fork scraping a nomstick pan if anyone is curious

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    We poisoned the planet for us

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