"Non stick lethal frying pan in your kitchen: It's worse than we thought"

Once it was used to kill pet birds now in your kitchen. Think twofold before use as toxin is passing in your blood stream

 

We are writing to permit you know the emission from Teflon, given off when a pan is heated is used in killing people's pet birds. Teflon is the trademarked name for the chemical Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). This chemical, which makes things “non-stick” in its use in cookware, should be classified as a “likely carcinogen” (a cancer-causing substance) according to some advisers to the EPA. It's called "Teflon Toxicosis" by veterinarians and happens because birds develop strong respiratory reactions to Teflon fumes — even when Teflon is used at only average cooking temperatures. When a Teflon-lined oven was used to bake biscuits at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, an owner reported the death of his parrots. When four stovetop burners lined with Teflon drip pans were preheated for a meal, 14 birds died within15 minutes. And when Teflon-coated heat lamp bulbs were installed in chicken pens, half of the chicken population passed away within a few days.

Now there's more news about this bird-killing toxin that's undoubtedly in your home — and in your bloodstream, too. It's in the bloodstream of almost every single one of us.

PFOA is the ingredient used in Teflon that causes the problems. Perfluororctanoic acid or PFOA (and also known as C8), is a carcinogen, is toxic to animals, and persists in the environment indefinitely.

History

In 1947, 3M (Minnesota, Mining, and Manufacturing Company Limited) began producing PFOA by electrochemical fluorination. In 1951, DuPont started using PFOA in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers in Washington, WV. In 1961, DuPont was aware of hepatomegaly in mice fed with PFOA. In 1968, organofluorine content was detected in the blood serum of consumers, and in 1976 it was suggested to be PFOA or a related compound such as PFOS. In the 1980s and 1990s researchers investigated the toxicity of PFOA.

In 1999, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) began investigating perfluorinated chemicals after receiving data on the global distribution and toxicity of PFOS. For these reasons, and USEPA pressure, in May 2000, 3M announced the phaseout of the production of PFOA, PFOS, and PFOS-related products. 3M stated that they would have made the same decision regardless of USEPA pressure.

Because of the 3M phaseout, in 2002 DuPont built its own plant in Fayetteville, NC to manufacture the chemical. The chemical has received attention due to litigation from the PFOA-contaminated community around DuPont's Washington Works Washington, WV facility, along with USEPA focus. Research on PFOA has demonstrated ubiquity, animal-based toxicity, and some associations with human health parameters and potential health effects. Additionally, advances in analytical chemistry in recent years have allowed the routine detection of low- and sub-parts per billion levels of PFOA in a variety of substances.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8 and perfluorooctanoate, is a synthetic, stable perfluorinated carboxylic acid and fluorosurfactant. One industrial application is as a surfactant in the emulsion polymerization of fluoropolymers. It has been used in the manufacture of such prominent consumer goods as Teflon and Gore-Tex. PFOA has been manufactured since the 1940s in industrial quantities. It is also formed by the degradation of precursors such as some fluorotelomers.

PFOA is derived from poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (PTFE) what we know as Teflon. Teflon itself was an "accidental" invention by a chemist in 1938. The fellow was trying to make a refrigerant and instead came up with the non-reactive, low-friction substance. Since then, PTFE has been employed as a coating on pots, pans, wiper blades, curling irons, stain-resistant carpets, and even microwave popcorn bags — just to name a few chemical-laced modern-day conveniences.

At least 99% of the general population in the U.S. have traces of PFOA in their bloodstream (up from 95% a few years ago). Folks who work in chemical plants or live near chemical plants probably have much higher levels than everybody else.

Evidences:

It is known for a while that Teflon was a likely health wrongdoer. The fact that Teflon fumes kill birds was the first clue. For instance,

• When a Teflon-lined oven was used to bake biscuits at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, an owner reported the death of his parrots.
• When four stovetop burners lined with Teflon drip pans were preheated for a meal, 14 birds died within15 minutes.
• And when Teflon-coated heat lamp bulbs were installed in chicken pens, half of the chicken population passed away within a few days.

Next clue was the health concerns voiced by workers at the DuPont Washington Works plant in the Mid-Ohio Valley. DuPont paid out a $300 million settlement in response to a class action lawsuit from plant workers and those who live near the plant in Ohio and West Virginia, all alleging DuPont contaminated their drinking water with PFOA. If a corporation settles a lawsuit one always suspects they were in the wrong, but you can't be sure. There wasn't a proven link between cancer and PFOA ... until now.

Wake up call

Because of the allegations in that West Virginia and Ohio region, a panel of public health scientists has been monitoring the long-term health of the community through epidemiologic and other data. The panel was approved by DuPont as part of the class action lawsuit over PFOA.

The evidence they've found is chilling. The low-but-constant levels of PFOA consumed by residents in their drinking water have upped the rates of kidney and testicular cancer. For kidney cancer, risk is up by a shocking 170 percent. Thyroid cancer may also be affected by PFOA.
That same panel of independent scientists found another hair-raising health link last year. Their findings showed a link between PFOA and pre-eclampsia (a condition during pregnancy that can have catastrophic consequences for both the mother and the fetus). And they recently found a link between PFOA and both thyroid disease and ulcerative colitis.

Olga V. Naidenko, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, said "Widespread pollution by PFOA should be a wake-up call that our chemical regulation system is severely broken." She added, "It is particularly urgent for the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a legal limit for drinking water pollution by PFOA, which is currently unregulated and never should have come to market." I agree that this is a wake-up call. But I think the only acceptable "legal limit" is zero.

A global phase-out is our best bet for future health safety

Right now, there's a voluntary pact between eight major U.S. companies, including DuPont, to "virtually" eliminate the use of PFOA by 2015. The pact was put together by the Environmental Protection Agency. The goal is to drastically reduce the shocking extent to which PFOA shows up everywhere (pizza boxes are another offender).

According to DuPont's spokeswoman, Janet E. Smith, "DuPont has commercialized new alternatives that are made with short chain chemistry that cannot break down into PFOA."

On the flip side, Leann Brown, press secretary for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), points out "Had DuPont done sufficient human safety testing before bringing this product into commerce, they would have found this chemical was unfit for commercial production and use."

The American Cancer Society points out there is very little data about the ability of PFOA to cause cancer, but also states the major U.S. health agencies have not formally evaluated PFOA and its connection to cancer. And keep in mind, DuPont isn't the only offender that's been using this chemical, though it's the only current American maker of PFOA. Loads of companies overseas continue to produce and use it.

There may not be any formal study results, but all signs point in that direction. If you ask us, it's not worth waiting around for a bureaucratic process to tell us what we already know. Although unhappily, this doesn't help the fact that it's probably already in your bloodstream. PFOA has even been found in the blood of marine life and Arctic polar bears.

All you can really do at this point is make an effort to avoid the stuff as much as possible. This means staying away from Teflon-coated cookware, or anything that's heat-resistant or non-stick. Clothes are also possible offenders, so avoid buying anything labeled wrinkle-free, stain-resistant, or waterproof.

If you have a hankering for popcorn, here's good news: You can pop ordinary kernels in your microwave in a simple, chemical-free, brown paper bag. In the meantime, I'll be watching for updates from DuPont as it phases out the chemical. And I'll be hoping someday for a global phase-out.

Some signs that PFOA may cause cancer

In the sixty years DuPont has been making Teflon, no human cancer has been publicly linked to the chemical.

One report claimed a connection between the birth of a deformed child and high traces of the chemical, but that was in 1981, and no other cases have been added.

For people with higher-than-average PFOA levels, the health concern that rings true is problems with fertility in both men and women.

For now, the only studies that support PFOA as a cause of cancer are based on testing rats with high doses.

Scientists are still concerned about the low levels found in humans. After all, industries are dealing with a toxin.

Doctors — or somebody, for crying out loud — should monitor people with high traces of the chemical to give us a better understanding of the impact on human health.

Because PFOA is clearly harmful to rats and incredibly persistent in the environment, the American EPA has noted "suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity, but not sufficient to assess human carcinogenic potential."

In response to its possible harm, the EPA launched the 2010/2015 Stewardship Program, an initiative to get the eight major manufacturers that use PFOA to work toward eliminating the chemicals from emissions and products by 2015.

DuPont claims that PFOA is not in the finished version of Teflon products anyway. It's merely used at an earlier stage of the manufacturing process. But the Environmental Working Group (EWG) states there are trace amounts in finished Teflon products. Since 95% of Americans have PFOA in their blood, it is the time to do away with PFOA.

Applications

PFOA has widespread applications. In 1976, PFOA was reported as a water and oil repellent "in fabrics and leather and in the production of floor waxes and waxed papers"; however, it is believed that paper is no longer treated with perfluorinated compounds, but with fluorotelomers with less than 0.1% PFOA. The compound is also used in "insulators for electric wires, planar etching of fused silica", fire fighting foam, and outdoor clothing. As a protonated species, the acid form of PFOA was the most widely used perfluorocarboxylic acid used as a reactive intermediate in the production of fluoroacrylic esters.

As a salt, the dominant use is as an emulsifier for the emulsion polymerization of fluoropolymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, or Teflon), polyvinylidene fluoride, and fluoroelastomers. For this use, 3M subsidiary Dyneon has a replacement emulsifer despite DuPont stating PFOA is an "essential processing aid". PFOA is used in the production of Gore-Tex as it is PTFE-based. In PTFE processing, PFOA is in aqueous solution and forms micelles that contain tetrafluoroethylene and the growing polymer. PFOA can be used to stabilize fluoropolymer and fluoroelastomer suspensions prior to further industrial processing and in ion-pair reversed-phase liquid chromatography it can act as an extraction agent. PFOA also finds uses in electronic products and as an industrial fluorosurfactant.

In a 2009 USEPA study of 116 products—purchased between March 2007 and May 2008 and found to contain at least 0.01% fluorine by weight—the concentrations of PFOA were determined. Concentrations shown below range from not detected, or ND, (with the detection limit in parenthesis) to 6750 with concentrations in nanograms of PFOA per gram of sample—or parts per billion—unless stated otherwise.

Products using PFOA

Serial No	Products
1	Pre-treated carpeting
2	Carpet-care liquids
3	Treated apparel
4	Treated upholstery
5	Treated home textiles
6	Treated non-woven medical garments
7	Industrial floor wax and wax removers
8	Stone, tile, and wood sealants
9	Membranes for apparel
10	Food contact paper
11	Dental floss/tape
12	Thread sealant tape
13	PTFE cookware

Global occurrence and sources

PFOA contaminates every continent. PFOA has been detected in the central Pacific Ocean at low parts per quadrillion ranges, and at low parts per trillion levels in coastal waters. Due to the surfactant nature of PFOA, it has been found to concentrate in the top layers of ocean water.

PFOA is detected widely in surface waters, and is present in numerous mammals, fish, and bird species. However, wildlife has much less PFOA than humans, unlike PFOS and other longer perfluorinated carboxylic acids; in wildlife, PFOA is not as bioaccumulative as longer perfluorinated carboxylic acids.

Most industrialized nations have average PFOA blood serum levels ranging from 2 to 8 parts per billion; the highest consumer sub-population identified was in Korea—with about 60 parts per billion. In Peru, Vietnam, and Afghanistan blood serum levels have been recorded to be below one part per billion. In 2003–2004 99.7% of Americans had detectable PFOA in their serum with an average of about 4 parts per billion, and concentrations of PFOA in US serum have declined by 25% in recent years. Despite a decrease in PFOA, the longer perfluorinated carboxylic acid PFNA is increasing in the blood of US consumers. So far we know no tests have been carried out within the workers of garments manufacturing units in Bangladesh.

Human data

The levels of PFOA exposure in humans vary widely. While an average American might have 3 or 4 parts per billion of PFOA present in his blood serum, individuals occupationally exposed to PFOA have had blood serum levels over 100,000 parts per billion (100 parts per million or 0.01%) recorded. In a study of individuals living around DuPont's Washington Works WV plant, those who had no occupational exposure had a median blood serum level of 329 parts per billion while the median of those with occupational exposure was 775 parts per billion. While no amount of PFOA in humans is legally recognized as harmful, DuPont was "not satisfied" with data showing their Chinese workers accumulated an average of about 2,250 parts per billion of PFOA in their blood from a starting average of around 50 parts per billion less than a year prior.

Consumers

Single cross-sectional studies on consumers have been published noting multiple associations. Blood serum levels of PFOA were associated with an increased time to pregnancy—or "infertility"—in a 2009 study. PFOA exposure was associated with decreased semen quality, increased serum alanine aminotransferase levels, and increased occurrence of thyroid disease. In a study of 2003–2004 US samples, a higher (9.8 milligram per deciliter) total cholesterol level was observed when the highest quartile was compared to the lowest. Along with other related compounds, PFOA exposure was associated with an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a study of US children aged 12–15. In a paper presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, PFOA appeared to act as an endocrine disruptor by a potential mechanism on breast maturation in young girls. A C8 Science Panel status report noted an association between exposure in girls and a later onset of puberty.

PFOA has been associated with signs of reduced fetal growth including lower birth weight.^{[108][109][110]} However, other studies have not replicated the lower birth weight finding including a study on the DuPont exposed community. PFOA exposure in the Danish general population was not associated with an increased risk of prostate, bladder, pancreatic, or liver cancer. Maternal PFOA levels were not associated with an offspring's increased risk of hospitalization due to infectious diseases, behavioral and motor coordination problems, or delays in reaching developmental milestones.

Toxicology data

PFOA is a carcinogen, liver toxicant, a developmental toxicant, an immune system toxicant, and also exerts hormonal effects including alteration of thyroid hormone levels. Animal studies show developmental toxicity from reduced birth size, physical developmental delays, endocrine disruption, and neonatal mortality. PFOA causes liver cancer in rodents and also induces testicular and pancreatic cancer through induction of Leydig cell tumors and pancreatic acinar cell tumors. PFOA alters lipid metabolism. It is an agonist of PPARα and is a peroxisome proliferator in rodents contributing to a well understood form of oxidative stress. Humans are considered less susceptible to peroxisome proliferation than rodents. However, PFOA has been found to be a liver carcinogen in rainbow trout via a potential estrogenic mechanism, which may be more relevant to humans.

While a USEPA review notes PFOA has not "been shown to be mutagenic in a variety of assays" in 1991 researchers from Japan demonstrated oxidative liver DNA damage in an experiment with rats. PFOA has been described as a member of a group of "classic non-genotoxic carcinogens". However, a provisional German assessment notes that a 2005 study found PFOA to be genotoxic via a peroxisome proliferation pathway that produced oxygen radicals in HepG2 cells, and a 2006 study demonstrated the induction and suppression of a broad range of genes; therefore, it states that the indirect genotoxic (and thus carcinogenic) potential of PFOA cannot be dismissed. Criteria have been proposed that would allow PFOA, and other perfluorinated compounds, to be classified as "weakly non-specific genotoxic.

Sources to people

Food, drinking water, outdoor air, indoor air, dust, and food packagings are all implicated as sources of PFOA to people. However, it is unclear which exposure routes dominate because of data gaps. When water is a source, blood levels are approximately 100 times higher than drinking water levels.

People who lived in the PFOA contaminated area around DuPont's Washington Works Washington, WV facility were found to have higher levels of PFOA in their blood from drinking water. The highest PFOA levels in drinking water were found in the Little Hocking water system, with an average concentration of 3.55 parts per billion during 2002–2005. Individuals who drank more tap water, ate locally grown fruits and vegetables, or ate local meat, were all associated with having higher PFOA levels. Residents who used water carbon filter systems had lower PFOA levels.

Food contact surfaces

PFOA is also formed as an unintended byproduct in the production of fluorotelomers and is present in finished goods treated with fluorotelomers, including those intended for food contact. Fluorotelomers are applied to food contact papers because they are lipophobic: they prevent oil from soaking into the paper from fatty foods. Also, fluorotelomers can be metabolized into PFOA. In an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) study, lipophobic fluorotelomer-based paper coatings (which can be applied to food contact paper in the concentration range of 0.4%) were found to contain 88,000–160,000 parts per billion PFOA, while microwave popcorn bags contained 6–290 parts per billion PFOA. Toxicologists estimate that microwave popcorn could account for about 20% of the PFOA levels measured in an individual consuming 10 bags a year if 1% of the fluorotelomers are metabolized to PFOA. Fluorotelomer coatings are used in fast food wrappers, candy wrappers, and pizza box liners. PAPS, a type of paper fluorotelomer coating, and PFOA precursor, is also used in food contact papers.

Despite DuPont's asserting that "cookware coated with DuPont Teflon non-stick coatings does not contain PFOA," residual PFOA was also detected in finished PTFE products including PTFE cookware (4–75 parts per billion). However, PFOA levels ranged from undetectable (<1.5) to 4.3 parts per billion in a more recent study. Also, non-stick cookware is heated—which should volatilize PFOA; PTFE products that are not heated, such as PTFE sealant tape, had higher (1800 parts per billion) levels detected. Overall, PTFE cookware is considered an insignificant exposure pathway to PFOA

Conclusion:

Multiple studies have shown how toxic this stuff is! So you must not like a side of polytetrafluoroethylene or perfluorooctanoic acid with your egg in the frying pans. Teflon is toxic so avoid it at all costs.

How much does the environment affect human health? Are air pollution and tainted water shortening our lives and those of our children? These questions have aroused increasing interest in recent years, particularly since the adoption of Agenda 21 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which drew the attention of policy makers to the links between health and the environment. Environmental degradation exerts significant pressure on human health. Exposure to air, water and soil pollution, to chemicals in the environment, or to noise, can cause cancer, respiratory, cardiovascular and communicable diseases, as well as poisoning and neuropsychiatric disorders. Emerging environmental hazards, such as chemical products, will also need to be addressed. Chemical products are used in virtually every man-made product and play an important role in the everyday life of people around the world. However, harmful exposure to chemical products can lead to health problems such as skin diseases, chronic bronchitis, nervous system dysfunctions and cancers as well as damaging the environment. Environmental hazards are responsible for as much as a quarter of the total burden of disease world-wide, and more than one-third of the burden among children. Heading that list are diarrhea, lower respiratory infections, various forms of unintentional injuries and malaria and cancer. The disease burden is much higher in the developing world, although in the case of certain non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, the per capita disease burden is larger in developed countries. Health impacts of environmental hazards run across more than 80 diseases and types of injury. Well-targeted interventions can prevent much of this environmental risk. Worldwide, as many as 13 million deaths could be prevented every year by making our environments healthier.

Beam of optimism is in pronouncement that eight U.S. companies, including giant DuPont Co., agreed to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products coated with the ubiquitous nonstick material. The voluntary pact, which was crafted by the Environmental Protection Agency, will force companies to reduce manufacturing emissions of PFOA by 95 percent. They will also have to reduce trace amounts of the compound in consumer products by 95 percent during the same period and virtually eliminate them by 2015.

Dr. Md. Abdus Sabur & Nahida Sultana