Hacker News Reader

Comment by BoppreH | Hacker News Reader

And I can enjoy life for longer if I don't live in a house with lead paint or e̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶a̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ forget my teflon pan on the stove.

I dislike platitudes like these that don't acknowledge that life is about tradeoffs, and sometimes a little caution gives large rewards.

View on HN

> eat scraps of Teflon from my pan

I’m sure there’s a doctor or a chemist in here who can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always understood Teflon to be super-duper-ultra inert. They literally make arterial grafts out of Teflon.

I think it is the glue or chemicals used to bind teflon is the issue.

> Birds are susceptible to a respiratory condition called "teflon toxicity" or "PTFE poisoning/toxicosis." Deaths can result from this condition, which is due to the noxious fumes emitted from overheated cookware coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

Sure, but burning Teflon and inhaling the fumes is much different from eating pieces of Teflon that flake off in your pan. Plenty of otherwise-harmless things are suddenly not harmless when you burn and inhale them.

Doctor-chemist here. You are correct. The carbon-fluorine bond is very inert to metabolism. Ingested Teflon would be almost entirely eliminated unchanged.

Takes pretty harsh conditions to break Teflon, but interestingly it can react with explosive violence, as I have witnessed, when combined with small particle sized Mg.

Why all the recent fuss about ingesting PFAS and “forever chemicals” then? I thought Teflon is a kind of PFAS?

PFAS afaik are used in the process of making teflon pans, namely in getting the teflon to stay attached to the pan's metal itself.

Heavy metals and other toxins bind to inert materials and enter/stay in the body when introduced by PFAS and microplastics

I think it is but I believe the rub is related to cooking temp. You're not supposed to heat it above x (400F? not sure) and it breaks down beyond that.

Yes but treating everything like possible lead paint is a sure way to live a miserable life. We need to be careful if there is proof of harm, not assume that everything is harmful.

That's a perfectly fine message, but the original post had none of the necessary subtlety. If your life advice could be used in a cigarette ad, you've diluted it too far.

Immediately what I thought of was smoking cigarettes. Enjoy life but educate yourself about what can extend it and reduce it. Indulge (or not) with open eyes.

Or deal with flaking paint in an old house--which inevitably does have lead paint that has been painted over.

Are you enjoying life?

No joke, I'm writing this comment from a sunbed at the beach, watching the crystal clear water with loved ones around and a dog nestled at my feet.

Yes, I'm enjoying life, thanks for asking :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com