Teflon in a sticky situation

Dangerous chemicals are being emitted

Seven Today Tonight, Laura Sparkes
Published June 6, 2005

The safety of non-stick teflon surfaces is being questioned after it was discovered that dangerous fumes are being emitted during cooking. The fumes from some non-stick frying pans in Australian households might be linked to the flu, infertility, thyroid and immune problems in laboratory animals and they can even kill birds. Bob Symons from the National Measurement Institute said chemicals - perfluorinated compounds - that come off over-heated frying pans are in the blood of 95 per cent of Americans. "Because these compounds are very persistent it takes a long time for them to break down and the more we're exposed the greater levels they're going to be in our blood," Mr Symons said. "The longer they stay in the blood in our bodies the more chance they have to interact with ourselves and different organs." The dangerous chemicals can start coming off the pan when it reached temperatures between 315C and 350C. Scientist with the Environmental Working Group, Tim Cropp, said there needed to be a warning on the frying pans. "They haven't put a warning on the pans because that's where the people would see it and it would stop people from buying the pans," he said. "There's no requirement for anyone to be notified of the problems with these pans because most of it falls under consumer safety and because consumers aren't able to complain about this because they don't even know when they've been harmed." Dr Marianne Lloyd-Smith from the National Toxics Network said it was not just the flu we should worry about. "They've [the fumes] been shown by research from some of the manufacturers to cause cancer, to cause liver disease, reproductive problems and a whole load of developmental problems as well."