News Coverage
Death by the range
Group wants warning labels on bird-killing Teflon pots
Published June 1, 2003
One day about two years ago, Bob Korenich wanted tea. He boiled water and turned off the stove.
Or so he thought.
In reality, the heat remained on for another five minutes. He believes this broke down the pot's nonstick coating, releasing toxic fumes into the air.
A couple of hours later, he found two of the family's four pet birds, "Little Bird" and "Lucky," dead.
Pathologists at the Purdue University Veterinary School later confirmed the birds died of severe pulmonary congestion consistent with the toxicity of Teflon fumes, said Jim Koch, the family veterinarian.
"We were stupid," Cathy McNamara, Korenich's wife, said in a telephone interview from her Bloomington, Ind., home. "We knew (about the dangers of nonstick cookware). We thought since it was expensive, it would be OK. There was no warning on the box."
Environmental Working Group -- a non-profit research organization based in Washington -- has taken aim at DuPont Chemical Co., which makes Teflon, the most recognizable brand of nonstick coating, also known as polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE. The group wants the government to force DuPont and other PTFE makers to include warning labels with household products such as cookware, ovens and irons.
At 680 degrees, Teflon and other nonstick products release toxic gases, including the animal carcinogens TFE and PFOA, which can kill birds and cause flu-like symptoms in humans, the group says in its new report "Canaries in the Kitchen."
DuPont spokeswoman Diane Shomper acknowledges Teflon poses danger, but only at temperatures above 500 degrees, well beyond what is necessary for frying or baking.
"The important thing for consumers to know is that nonstick cookware is absolutely safe when used at appropriate temperature levels," Shomper said recently.
While McNamara takes at least partial blame for her pets' deaths, other bird lovers say the warnings are long overdue.
Donald Kanfer, a DeLand veterinarian in practice since 1986, said he has seen, on average, about two birds die every year after nonstick cookware has been overheated.
"I've seen a lot of birds die," he said. "It's a common problem."
It's so common that Web sites and aviary veterinarians' texts refer to it as one of the most frequent killers of pet birds. And it's not new.
At least one news article about the problem was written as long as 17 years ago.
Yet Paula Gunsolus of Jacksonville said she and her husband, Mike, didn't have a lot of information about the dangers of nonstick products when they started keeping pet birds three years ago.
She accidentally left a pot of boiling water on the stove for several hours Easter Sunday 2002. Twelve cockatiels in the next room died early the next morning, they believe because of the fumes, although no necropsy was done.
"We learned the hard way," Gunsolus said. "You have to be careful with your pet birds."
Nearly 7 million households in the United States own about 19 million pet birds and "many don't know that Teflon poses an acute hazard to birds," according to Environmental Working Group's report.
Gunsolus said her nonstick pots were old and she doesn't recall seeing a warning label. She believes they should be labeled.
DuPont's Shomper said the company has been fielding questions about the issue for years.
DuPont voluntarily stopped making Teflon-coated drip pans in the 1980s after people complained to the U.S. Product Safety Commission that their birds had died, particularly during holidays such as Thanksgiving, when ranges were used for long hours, said commission spokesman Ken Giles.
About 10 years ago, DuPont produced a bird-safety brochure. Titled "Making a Safe Home for Your Bird," it was written by a veterinarian and states: "PTFE coating can also emit fumes harmful to birds if cookware is accidentally heated to high temperatures, exceeding approximately 500 degrees -- well above the temperatures needed for frying or baking."
However, an Environmental Working Group chemist tested Teflon's breakdown point using a precision infrared thermometer. A nonstick frying pan set on high reached 721 degrees in five minutes.
"Our simple test showed DuPont is wrong when they tell customers the pans won't degrade except under extreme misuse," the group's report states. "Actually, the pans started emitting toxic particles and chemicals quite quickly at temperatures within normal use on a typical stovetop."
The group suggests the Consumer Product Safety Commission take a closer look at the industry. It also wants government to require warning labels, which some manufacturers of nonstick cookware already provide.
Giles said the commission has received a letter from Environmental Working Group and is evaluating it. In the meantime, he said consumers need to be aware of many other indoor air quality dangers that pose health risks to people, such as carbon monoxide, lead and biological pollutants including animal dander, dust mite and cockroach parts, bacteria and pollen.
But some bird owners are taking note of the concerns about nonstick cookware. Juanita Hawkins, a DeBary resident who owns three cockatiels, said she didn't know Teflon-coated pans could be a killer when she first got her birds.
She said, "Now I use strictly stainless steel."
On the web: http:// www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/es.php
http://www.dupont.com/teflon/newsroom/bird.htm
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/iaq.html
About Teflon
Teflon was discovered by accident in 1938 and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most slippery substance.
DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was trying to improve Freon, his company's famous refrigerant, when he put tetrafluoroethylene, a gas, in a high-pressure tank. Hoping to form a liquid, he opened the tank and started to pour but nothing came out, according to Wilson Lutz, a retired Manchester College chemistry professor who knew Plunkett.
"He took a hacksaw to the tank and found a white, waxy material inside," Lutz said in a telephone interview from his home near the North Manchester, Ind., campus where Plunkett did his undergraduate work.
Dubbed PTFE, the material is used in aerospace, communications, electronics, industrial and architecture fields, according to a DuPont history. Closer to home, the material is found on cookware, waffle irons, griddles, stovetops, ovens, space heaters, irons and ironing board covers.
When heated to 500 degrees or more -- a temperature DuPont says is beyond normal household use -- PTFE releases toxins that can be deadly to pet birds and cause flu-like symptoms in people.