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eimrine

TL/DR: We Have Got It Because of PFAS

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The article says nothing about PFAS. It states that bakers' parchment paper is treated with silicone.

But the truth is that a parchment paper is impossible without PFAS.

The tl;dr of an article should be about the article.

come on now, you're really expecting too much of the internet with that kind of thought process.

How so? Parchment paper is cellulose impregnated with silicone.

That is the current incarnation of parchment paper, but before that it was impregnated with Quilon, which I understand is fatty acids stabilized with trivalent chromium.

did chromium become another type of fluorine while we all weren't looking or is this just a fun fact wholly unrelated to the bit about PFAS upthread?

The concern is twofold. First, chromium is an element and as such does not break down, it can only be secreted. Second, the higher oxidation state Cr(VI) is a known carcinogen. It's claimed the Cr(III) here will not oxidize to Cr(VI) under normal cooking conditions, however.

My understanding is the claim that Cr is a necessary micronutrient is disputed.

so... wholly unrelated to the claim that it's impossible to make parchment paper without polyfluoroalkyl substances which is what was being refuted in the thing you replied to?

I was pointing out a concern with that non-PFAs solution.

I also understand the silicone in current parchment paper isn't a PFAS, as it contains no fluorine.

That is not true. Especially since TFA clearly dates the invention of parchment paper to 1847, nearly a century before the synthesis of PFAS.

If you want an attack angle into parchment paper, look up a) silicone curing types and b) loose siloxanes.

A cool thing about silicones is they complicate the processing of landfill gas. That gas is from bacterial decomposition of waste landfills, and is mostly methane + CO2. So burning it in small engines or turbines makes sense. But it also has silicon-bearing volatile compounds from decomposition of silicones, and if you burn those in an engine you fill it with particles of silica, which abrade surfaces and form glassy coatings on turbine blades.

An additional source of silicones in landfills is cosmetics, of which they form a substantial fraction.

Modern cosmetics are 90% harmful garbage.

There are valid uses for silicone, for example high quality silicone gaskets for leak proof containers are a very solid use case. We should just not use it for everything that's remotely applicable.

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