Teflon itself is pretty much inert. That's the whole point - nothing reacts with it, nothing sticks to it. The worry is about the chemicals used to manufacture it.
Ergo oil is toxic.
You are using bad logic and bad science.
Oil was found to be toxic at a lower temperature than teflon, making teflon safer than oil for high heat cooking.
Obviously when I say "oil is toxic" I'm being sarcastic.
Exposure of Japanese Quail and Parakeets to the Pyrolysis Products of Fry Pans Coated with Teflon® and Common Cooking Oils
Lethal temperature:
butter: 260°C/500°F
Teflon: 330°C/626°F
plastic handle: 370°C/698°F
So it seems to be that cast iron itself, heated, doesn't cause the bird to die. Cast iron + butter kills the bird, but so does teflon + butter. So in butter-less dry pan to dry pan scenarios, cast iron is non-toxic yet teflon is toxic.
As you can see here [1] if you leave your pan on the stove heated it can hit these toxic temperatures within minutes. So the exposure to the gas isn't hypothetical. Dry pan toxicity is a real concern which is unique to Teflon.
Then there's digesting it since it will slowly wear off into your food. We don't have science specifically looking at long-term slow exposure to PTFE/PFOA. So you're taking your chances... but we do know that PFOA is much less inert than PFTE when digested.
Non-stick pans won't last as long as cast iron or stainless steel, and cast iron can perform like non-stick while also adding flavor and necessary iron. Oh and cast iron can be often as cheap or cheaper than non-stick (except for the super crazy low end, but talk about most likely to be toxic...), and most certainly is cheaper in the long run (I'll have my great-grandmother's pan for the rest of my life which I do 90% of my cooking in... try that with your teflon).
So if you don't need non-stick pans, so why voluntarily expose yourself to the risk?
[1] http://buffalobirdnerd.com/clients/8963/documents/Teflon.pdf
I think it's just the smoke, nothing special about oil or teflon. I wonder if smokers have a problem with bird health?
Cast iron has oil on it when seasoned. I suspect the study used "clean" cast iron.
And even if Teflon was totally safe, it's well-known to release toxic gases when overheated, which is an easy mistake to make in kitchens.
And we know quite far. It's pretty easy to tell from the molecular structure.
> it's well-known to release toxic gases when overheated, which is an easy mistake to make in kitchens.
So does oil. And oil does it at a lower temperature than teflon, which makes teflon safer. Or are you planning on banning oil in kitchens?
PTFE is stable and nontoxic at temperatures below about 250° celsius.
PFOA, a.k.a. C8, is a surfactant (“soap”) which was used in the polymerization of PTFE. (But also used for many other purposes, e.g. as an ingredient in carpet cleaners and fire-fighting foam.)
PFOA is a toxin and carcinogen which bioaccumulates and causes nasty problems for people exposed to large amounts of it.