OT - Teflon

[Guest guest]

Comments from Connett, PhD:

Teflon is the trade name for the polymer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) used in electrical insulating tape; combustion engines; chemical apparatus

and tubing designed to resist attack from most chemicals,

and in non-stick frying pans and other cookware.

Prior to this article there have been stories about caged birds dying in kitchens after fires involving Teflon cookware, suggesting the emissions of

toxic gases when this polymer is burned.

This article is more serious because the researchers did not burn the Teflon but simply heated it. Presumably, typical cooking procedures would also

heat the Teflon to the temperature range investigated

by these researchers. Thus, this material that is

perceived by most as being benign, could be a source

of both significant indoor and outdoor air pollution.

This is another nasty indication that the world of organofluorine compounds could be going the same way as their more famous cousins: the organochlorine

compounds. In the latter case most of these products,

such as organochlorine pesticides, solvents and

PVC plastic (despite the toxic generating manufacturing

processes that produce them) were perceived as benign.

However, they had several problems:

They tended to be very persistent in the environment

They are fat soluble

and resistent to normal detoxification processes

in the liver

They accumulate

and concentrate in animal and human body fat,

They get passed

on by the mother to the fetus through the placental

membrane and then to the infant via breastmilk,

A number of them

are endocrine disrupting chemicals (i.e. they

interfere with the production or performance of hormones, which are the messengers produced in special glands to regulate body chemisty) To top it all, when these substances are burned in any facility ranging from a back yard burner to a trash incinerator,

they produce highly toxic byproducts including

dioxins and furans ( PCDDs and PCDFs).

Twelve of these compounds (or families of compounds) were the subject of the POPs (persistent organic pollutants) treaty signed in Stockholm last May

by many countries around the world, including the

US.

The bottom line is that nature doesn't make persistent things. Both in our bodies and in the environment, natural processes are constantly building

up and breaking down all the chemical components

used.

Nature attempts to protect itself from persistent fat soluble substances by converting them to water soluble substances, which can then be excreted

through the kidney. If this strategy fails then

they are stored in our fat. In the case of persistent

(or permanent) water soluble substances like fluoride

or lead, the body will excrete as much as it can

through the kidney and what it can't ends up largely

in our bones.

However, in the case of both fluoride and lead other more sensitive organs like the brain and pineal gland may also have mechanisms which allow their

accumulation.

Returning to organofluorine compounds, it is also interesting to note that there are two forms of fluoride found in human plasma: free (or inorganic)

fluoride and bound fluoride. According to Whitford

in his book, "The Metabolism and Toxicity of Fluoride"

(Karger,1996), "perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, octanoic

acid fully saturated with 15 fluorine atoms)...(constitutes)

about 20-30% of the nonionic fluoride in human plasma.

This surface-active agent, which is a component of plasticizers, lubricants, wetting agents, emulsifiers and other products, appear to enter the body

through contact with or ingestion of commercial

products. It has a very long half-life (approx.

1.5 years) in human males (Ubel et al., 1980)".

Thus the question raised by this new report in Nature

is how many of the byproducts from heating Teflon

are accumulating insidiously in our bodies like

PFOA? Are any being passed onto the fetus? Will

any of them turn out to be endocrine disrupters?

Connett, PhD, is a Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.

He is also Director of the Fluoride Action

Network, an international coalition dedicated to ending water fluoridation and alerting people to fluoride's health and environmental risks. Visit their website at www.fluoridealert.org.