The Food Doesn’t Stick To It But We Can't Get Rid Of It
3/26/2006
Has anyone heard of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)? It’s not a very easy word to say for most of us. One of its common uses is in the production of Teflon. Besides cookware, PFOA is used to make the nonstick coatings on microwave popcorn bags, french fry containers, pizza boxes, fabrics, and on just about anything where grease, stains, and water needs to be repelled.
Worries about nonstick cookware have been in the news for years now but there was no consensus. They were bad, there was no problem, and then they were bad again. Then last December (2005), for DuPont of Wilmington, Delaware, the only U.S. based manufacturer of PFOA, things got pretty bad. It seems that DuPont wasn’t exactly up front with EPA investigators. They withheld corporate data on the true nature regarding the extent of releases of PFOA into the environment and the effects on people. DuPont has agreed to pay a fine of $16.5 million to settle charges that it withheld data.
The EPA has asked all eight of the world’s manufacturers of PFOA to work toward ending production of the chemical by 2015. The request, which has been agreed to, was made this January just before a panel of EPA scientists issued a decision stating that PFOA was a, “likely carcinogen”. Producers have agreed that PFOA emissions and use in commercial products will be reduced by 95% within 5 years. Two years ago the EPA had determined that the ubiquitous chemical not only contaminated the water, air, and wildlife but was statistically present in the blood of up to 90% of all Americans, but scientists aren’t sure how it gets into the bloodstream. Despite denials by DuPont and others, Teflon coatings break down when heated and release PFOA.
The obvious question is: “should we stop using our non-stick cookware, which is usually made of aluminum by the way?” I think the answer is not too hard to figure out. Stop using it and invest in some stainless steel, cast iron, and enamel coated cookware, and learn to cook at lower temperatures with a little more liquid.
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