Teflon debate a sticky situation

Toronto Star, Nancy J. White
Published April 20, 2006

You may not be familiar with perfluorooctanoic acid, but you've heard of Teflon. PFOA is used to make non-stick coating for cookware and utensils, and to help repel stains on clothing, carpets and upholstery. Candy bar wrappers, microwave popcorn bags and fast food packaging may also use PFOA. It's also used in Gore-Tex. PFOA has been linked to cancer and developmental problems in animal studies. Designed to be indestructible, it's been found in polar bears and likely circulates in the blood of most North Americans. This winter, PFOA was labelled "a likely carcinogen" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's scientific advisory board. Chemical manufacturers have agreed to an EPA program to eliminate it by 2015. In this country, PFOA is undergoing a risk assessment that should be completed this year. The chemical is not manufactured here. So, should you throw out your non-stick pans? Tests on non-stick frying pans showed that within two to five minutes on a regular stovetop with the burner on high, the cookware exceeded 680 degrees Fahrenheit. That's when toxic gases, linked to the deaths of pet birds, are released. The tests, done in 2003 by a university food-safety professor, were commissioned by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research organization in Washington, D.C. The report is called Canaries in the Kitchen. Still no one knows exactly how how PFOA enters our bodies. Scott Mabury, environmental chemistry professor at the University of Toronto, suspects some comes from dust, dirt, water and food that contain low levels of PFOA. But the expert says most of it probably takes an indirect route: It may be made in our bodies from precursor alcohols that we eat or inhale from stain and grease repellent products. "The jury's still out," says Mabury, who has kept his non-stick pans. He believes Teflon cookware is not a significant source of PFOA, though he agrees empty non-stick pans should not be allowed to reach high temperatures. PFOA gets all the press but it's part of the perfluorinated carboxylic acid or PFCA family. Many of PFOA's siblings show similar toxicity profiles and the longer chain ones may accumulate more in our bodies, Mabury explains. We encounter these other PFCAs indirectly from stain and grease repellent items. In 2004, Canada temporarily banned four new substances that are precursors to PFCA. A final decision is expected this summer. Mabury views scientific and government action on PFCAs as hopeful. "We're more aware, reacting more nimbly," he says. "Take heart." On the other hand, Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, calls the government "glacial." He'd like to see a ban on all harmful PFC-related chemicals. His family doesn't use non-stick pans.