Thursday, July 9, 2009

PTFE Exposure

PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) is Teflon(TM), which people will tell you causes cancer or whatever. It might. If you ever get exposed to it. The science is absolutely clear: Teflon-coated pans are safe up to about 780F, a temperature at which anything in the pan will have caught fire. So, as a rule of thumb, you should be careful when flames start shooting out of your nonstick pan. Soon it might get hot enough to emit toxic Teflon particles. People scream about "Risk!" without comprehending what it really means, even qualitatively. Risk = exposure * hazard. therefore .... No exposure = no risk. No doubt this is one of the most difficult problems to overcome, psychologically. Even if the worker intellectually knows this ... their definition of "no exposure" is rarely the same as mine. Well, I suppose "no exposure" is the same. It's the "acceptable exposure" whichis the sticking point ... unfortunately, Teflon doesn't help with this no-stick problem. .