JeffL
1988
Ph.D. chemist here, so weighing in on something that is being vastly misreported and likely mis-legislated by legislatures wanting to look good.
A LOT of talk about PFAS chemicals. Basically, there are some low molecular chemicals that are indeed bad for living things as they are bio-accumulative - they never leave your body and thus build up. Some of them have negative health effects.
However, they’re really going overboard. If you read some sites, the the CDC site, they say they are banning fluorinated polymers (like Teflon.) There is a fluorinated polymer we use in our products and our customers are in a panic. The data, over 50 years plus, is that the polymer is 100% safe, inert, if you eat it your body just passes it through, it is non-bioaccumulative, can not pass through cell walls, if it gets into water it just drops (it’s called low transport) and doesn’t travel, and if you degrade it, it is chemically impossible to degrade into any PFAS chemical.
Yet, states are considering “Fluorine” bans. I’m on several national committees and we’ve been talking to the Maine legislature who want a total fluorine ban. We asked, does that include fluorinated water? They looked at us with blank looks. Oh, don’t know but if we have to. We explained that just because there are fluorinated PFAS chemicals that are bad actors, it doesn’t mean everything with a C-F bond is bad. In the same way that chlorine gas in poisonous, vinyl chloride monomer can be dangerous if mishandled, but sodium chloride is table salt.
ANYWAY the point is, if you hear about PFAS bans, don’t let if fool you into thinking your Teflon pans are dangerous.
But won’t you think of the CHILDREN?!
JonRowe
1990
Did you ask them if they were going to address my concerns about the “forever chemical” dihydrogen monoxide?!
JeffL
1991
Our committee (most of us have children and grandchildren and care very much about the environment) has commented that we should not file briefs to prevent Maine from passing a complete ban. Once they do that and no one can have non-stick pans, all of the machinery and equipment that uses Teflon (or other fluoropolymer) on Teflon in areas to have low friction and low wear, all of the pumps off all types, small and huge, that use Teflon washers and pieces, even things as simple as no more Teflon tape - the number of instances where fluoropolymers are used are innumerable, and there is no true replacements - once Maine demonstrates the economic impact of such a poorly advised wide ban, other states will listen to the real science.
And juries will use real evidence and logic to make decisions. Pipe dreams, all.
Plumber sees what you did there.
stusser
1993
One thing I’ve learned, to my great chagrin, is teflon tape is not optional!
Houngan
1994
The experiment continues! I made a sandwich and dropped some cheese shreds on the pan, they burned to a black crisp but still popped off with a very light spatula scrape. So I cleaned the pan again, it had some oil so I wiped it with a paper towel to nothing more than what the towel would no longer pick up, and burned a piece of cheese onto it. What do you call those little fried discs of cheese you get with a fancy Caesar salad? It turned into that. The wacky thing is it self-released from an essentially dry, unseasoned, metal-showing-through pan. This is getting interesting. I might do a bare oiling/wiping and burn some molasses onto it, see what that does. That’s the worst case I can think of, suggestions welcome.
Lantz
1995
Please drill tiny holes in it.
RichVR
1996
Frico. Delicious crispy frico.
RichVR
1998
Frico can be molded like tuille. So, let’s say, crispy cheese taco shells are not out of the question. And many other lovely things.
Houngan
1999
I think I respect my drillbits more than I do my pan, to be honest. Cast iron is pretty damned hard.
Timex
2000
Keep in mind, the cheese has oil in it.
Molasses ain’t gonna do the same thing, I don’t think.
RichVR
2001
Yeah. I’ve made frico in a dry stainless steel pan. Lifts right out. Of course YMMV.
Houngan
2002
True, I sopped the grease from it as it reached the burning stage, that’s why I find my tests suspect. I’ll report back on the molasses.
Good dad joke:
Papa Mole and Mama Mole are walking through the tunnel under the garden with little Mikey Mole behind them.
Papa Mole says, “I smell carrots!”
Mama Mole says, “I smell radishes!”
Mikey Mole says, “I smell molasses!”
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Looks like the cheese in a skirt burger to me.
