• pistonfish@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    Keep in mind that nonstick cookware is still very safe when handled correctly. The problem lies in the manufacturing of these needed chemicals. When these chemicals get into the environment, because of improper safety management, it will stay there for hundreds of years, taking it’s toll on flora and fauna.

    • Zacryon@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      very safe when handled correctly

      Too many people are not educated about that.

      The problem lies in the manufacturing of these needed chemicals. When these chemicals get into the environment, because of improper safety managemen

      Which is one of the reasons for that law, see:

      Dubbed “Amara’s Law” after 20-year-old cancer victim Amara Strande, who in 2023 succumbed to a rare type of liver cancer linked to PFAS after growing up near a Minnesota-based 3M plant that dumped them into the local water supply, the new regulation bans the chemicals and any items made with them from being sold within the state.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Too many people are not educated about that.

        I’ve never met the sort of idiots who put an empty pan on some turbo heat or use metal with nonstick, but I know they’re out there.

        • _bac@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          I have never seen a teflon pan that didnt have scratches after a few years.

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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            1 day ago

            Nice to meet you

            *pushes all the nonstick pans into a cupboard to keep them safe*

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          You’ve never known anyone to forget a pan on the stove? I know several and even did it once myself

          You’ve never kept a nonstick pan despite visible damage to the coating “it looks ok…”?

          You’ve never kept a “good” non-stick pan past its recommended life expectancy?

          What about the broiler? Even though I should know better, it was just this year when I finally made the connection that I’ve been using a non-stick baking sheet under the broiler for decades.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              You can find online a lot of surprisingly short life expectancies for non-stick pans. Most commonly you should replace after 5-7 years or any visible sign of damage to the coating. Do you make sure to replace all your pans by then?

              PFOA was legal until I think 2012. That’s not only a failure of the government to establish safe standards, but all too many people kept that cookware years past when it was no longer used, perhaps even until today.

              Non-stick cookware can off-gas toxic fumes when used too hot. A common broiler can do that: you should not use non-stick pans under a broiler. However most bakeware is non-stick. An actual broiler pan uses a ceramic coating to withstand the higher temperatures: you should not just use any bakeware of the right shape.

              • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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                1 day ago

                If my pans start breaking then ofc I will replace them.

                PFOA was legal until I think 2012. That’s not only a failure of the government to establish safe standards, but all too many people kept that cookware years past when it was no longer used, perhaps even until today.

                I thought cookware wasn’t really a concern here, more the plants making it and it getting into drinking water, being used in food packaging, that sort of stuff. “Overall, PTFE cookware is considered an insignificant exposure pathway to PFOA.”

                Non-stick cookware can off-gas toxic fumes when used too hot. A common broiler can do that: you should not use non-stick pans under a broiler. However most bakeware is non-stick. An actual broiler pan uses a ceramic coating to withstand the higher temperatures: you should not just use any bakeware of the right shape.

                You need to heat it up to 260’C which is quite hot. I haven’t had the heat limit be an issue personally.

                • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Cookware isn’t a major vector for pfoa anymore

                  By 2007, studies showed that the concentration of PFOA in a sample of the U.S. population’s bloodstream (collected in 2003-2004) was 25 percent less than that in samples collected in 1999-2000

                  Normal cooking appliances can be hot enough both on stovetop (such as with a dry pan left on a burner) and in the broiler to damage non-stick coatings

                  Teflon and other coatings can begin to break down when the temperature reaches 500˚F

                  Yeah I guess that converts to 260°C but the point is that ovens do get this hot

                  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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                    1 day ago

                    Was the concentration in cookware a higher source of expose some time before? I know the situation with PFOA was worse before, but afaik it was even back then due to other concerns than the cookware.

        • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          You’re lucky then. I have had multiple flatmates who don’t understand what a nonstick pan is, scraped the pans up, and continued to use them. Despite warning.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          2 days ago

          Spoken like somebody who did not marry a person that is even more careless and ADHD than themselves, lol.

            • Zink@programming.dev
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              1 day ago

              Fortunately we only have one tiny nonstick pan that she uses for occasional eggs. And I’m the only one that uses the carbon steel wok or occasionally cast iron.

              For everything else, stainless steel with an internal aluminum layer, and a nice black circle in the center of the pans, haha.

    • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      And how do you dispose of it correctly? Cookware shouldn’t need to come with an MSDS sheet

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Put it in the metal recycling bin in my case. But depends on your local recycling/waste management system.

        • Emerald@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yeah I think you’re in the minority which your teflon recycling. Mine doesn’t even do paper

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Does Teflon even break down into PFAS at all? From what I read I think it doesn’t.

      • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 hours ago

        It is the material on the pans, but the only case where the companies making the stuff were successfully sued was when they were caught for dumping intermediates of the chemical in to a tributary of Ohio river.

        It’s hard to pin down how impactful the coatings on the pans are because of how many other sources of these kinds of fluorocarbons are in house hold items, and in the environment due to large companies disposing of them recklessly. We know for a fact that basically everyone has some level of these compounds in them due to their ubiquity.

        The pans are just one potential source and a particularly notable one because they’re in contact with food.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        That’s the first part, used correctly it’s a non issue so just use your nonstick correctly.

        • snowe@programming.dev
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          23 hours ago

          recent studies have stated that the pans offgas from manufacturing for weeks after you’ve bought them, no heating needed, so no, that’s not correct. and it was known that they offgas at only 325ºF years ago. https://www.ewg.org/research/canaries-kitchen

          so no, teflon pans are bad no matter how you use them, they’re bad for the environment, they’re bad for your health, they’re bad for animals, they’re bad for babies that haven’t been born yet.

        • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          In other words don’t do what I did and put half a litre into a $6 pot on your new induction cooktop and set it to 2kW to see how long it takes to boil.

          It boils quick.

          It then boils more enthusiastically than you’ve ever seen before, and a cancerous stench fills the air as the coating breaks down and the pot deforms.

        • Valmond@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Like throw it away every 6 months.

          Edit: or 1 or 2 years, it was hyperbole. Instead of like never throwing it out?

          • pistonfish@feddit.org
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            2 days ago

            The nonstick pans I’ve using are several years old now without any signs of deteriorating nonstick surfaces. Use cookware out of wood or plastic to not scrape off the coating.

          • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I’ve had mine for 2 years now. It’s still non stick and I cook extremely regularly. Eg. 90% of my meals are cooked by me. I think some non stick pans are shit though because one of the ones I own started deteriorating after a year.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            If you use it incorrectly then yeah. You might as well stop making food as well because clearly you don’t know what you’re doing.