Teflon can make you sick and kill pet birds

[xray s]

ABC 20/20 story on Teflon fumes from cooking pans giving people flu like symptoms and killing birds in kitchens.

The stuff is in all our blood. EPA investigating.

Turn it on now.

:scared:

[wuushew]

1. Is this a problem with all forms of teflon?

They are talking about some chemical called C8

[xray s]

2. Don't know

How many forms of Teflon are there? Do they all have C8?

They were talking about pans, carpets, clothing...anything with the chemical c8.

Is this chemical common to all the different types of Teflon?

[amazona]

4. it is called PTFE and if you have birds do NOT have nonstick

When I wrote for Bird Talk, we did stories on this issue every year, and the magazine tried to run regular notices about this issue; American Cage-Bird Magazine, now defunct, did the same.

A whole household of birds can be killed in as little as 20 minutes. Folks, it is ALL kinds of nonstick cookware, Teflon, Calphalon, Silverstone...it's all bad. This material is fine "when used as directed," the trouble is that, sooner or later, as we ALL do, once in a while a Teflon pan gets overheated, and the PTFE is released when the nonstick product is overheated.

We struggled for years, without success, get the manufacturers to put warning labels on these products. They have been aware of the many, many deaths of pet birds for at least 2 decades. They don't care.

If you are a KNOWLEDGEABLE bird owner, the first thing you do when buying a bird is to go through your house and throw out all the nonstick products. I would not even give them away. Just trash 'em unless you can be SURE the recipient will never own a pet bird.

All it takes is one phone call, one distraction, the pot boils over, the smoke (which you don't even notice) goes up...and your birds are dead. Even large birds like Grays, dead in 20 minutes.

I really can't over-emphasize this point enough because people have lost wonderful, gifted pets and then blamed themselves for something that we all do. Pots and pans overheat, people. It happens. Have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and do NOT use nonstick cookware.

[Deja Q]

13. Maybe I shouldn't risk it then...

I always use the overhead fan, and maybe I have been lucky to date, but if by some element of chance I did leave the stove on, unattended, could the fumes still travel far enough to kill my bird?

[RC]

3. Only when heated to the point

of smoking. At normal cooking temperatures it is safe.

[amazona]

5. unless you have nonstick surfaces in your oven!

We learned that some of the newer ovens had nonstick surfaces that would release the gas at around 500 degrees -- broiling temperature. So in those cases birds were killed even when product was "used as directed."

For the rest, read my above post. Everyone burns pots and pans at some point if they use their kitchen for more than a place to store ice cream; we are all fallible. The product is not safe for bird owners. Period. It is playing with fire to think you will never, ever make a mistake and never let a pot boil out of water, which is all it takes to lose your birds. I am not talking about cases where people have burned their houses down but simple cases of forgotten pot boil-over causing a person to lose all their birds in minutes.

If you have a bird, you are playing with fire to use these products. Our strong recommendation was to discard them all. Soaking and washes bird-safe dishes isn't that hard. I'm partial to cast iron myself.

[xray s]

6. 20/20 recorded fumes at 500 degrees while cooking bacon

.

[Robin Hood]

7. Canary in the coal mine.

Jeezus H Christ. And other than flu like symptoms, what else is this crap doing to us? What about all the chemicals in carpet fibers and home building materials. I can't walk into a Home Depot without feeling ill, And I am a big healthy man.

[amazona]

8. you may have a slight environmental allergy

There were lots of techniques we used to suggest, too many to go into here. As far as carpets, you can order the carpets be delivered, so you don't have to go into the Home Depot, but you need to air out the house after they are installed for a week or so before putting your birds back in the house. Or in your case since you yourself are probably sensitive to the formaldehyde (sp? sorry it's late) in new carpet, you yourself should stay elsewhere for a few days to let the house get thoroughly aired out. There are actually quite a few products it is best to avoid -- can get to be quite a nuisance -- but you need to keep your exposure low if you are already experiencing symptoms. When you continue to expose yourself to your allergen, you can set yourself up for serious illness; some people who develop severe environmental allergy after exposure to carpet or photo chemicals can become very ill.

I take all these precautions in any case because of my birds, but your own lungs are also precious, so take care of yourself.

I am a firm believer in a well-ventilated home; unfortunately, a tight, energy efficient home can be the worst thing in the world for someone who is sensitive to chemicals.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

9. Environmental Working Group alerts

www.ewg.org/issues/pfcs/20030529/



DuPont Recruited “Volunteers”
to Smoke Teflon-Laced Cigarettes
Human Experiment Found that Fumes from
Heated Teflon Make People Sick


As the federal government intensifies its review of a toxic Teflon-related chemical that widely contaminates human blood, researchers are raising questions about the scientific basis for DuPont’s assertion that the brand-name product is itself safe in normal use, a claim the company has offered to the public and the media repeatedly over the past year.

An Environmental Working Group (EWG) review of a series of studies published beginning in the 1950s shows that DuPont has known for at least 50 years that Teflon fumes at relatively low temperatures can cause an acute illness known as polymer fume fever. In several studies DuPont recruited human volunteers and intentionally exposed them to Teflon fumes to the point of illness. Although DuPont has not studied the potential long-term health impacts of chronic exposures to Teflon fumes from home cookware, the studies the company has conducted, including their human experiments, contradict their frequent assertions that heated Teflon is known to be safe. The available evidence suggests that normal use of Teflon cookware causes some unknown but significant incidence of polymer fume fever:


To learn why their workers were becoming ill on the job, DuPont conducted human experiments with Teflon-laced cigarettes. Nine out of ten volunteers who smoked 0.4 milligrams of Teflon developed “Polymer Fume Fever” .
When working with Teflon heated to temperatures routinely achieved in home cooking, DuPont employees wear respiratory protection. As early as 1962 the company required their workers to wear respirators when working with Teflon heated at or above 400 °F in poorly ventilated areas . Independent experiments show that in the home, the surface of a Teflon pan reaches this temperature within two minutes, on a conventional stovetop burner set on high .
At least two cases of polymer fume fever produced by home cooking scenarios have been reported in the peer-reviewed literature . Since the fever mimics the common flu, the source of the illness is likely to go unrecognized (and unreported in most cases).
DuPont’s studies show that smokers may be at high risk for polymer fume fever from the use of home cookware, since a smoker can inhale decomposed Teflon flakes and Teflon offgas products drawn into a burning cigarette .
Both DuPont and the government lack the data needed to know with certainty that Teflon in home cookware is safe .
DuPont’s human experiments
In 1962, DuPont scientists conducted two controlled experiments on human “volunteers” to study the Teflon-related illness called polymer fume fever, or simply “the shakes.” The company laced cigarettes with Teflon and had the volunteers inhale the fumes to the point of illness.

more....

[neebob]

10. I learned this the hard way

in the 1980s - came home after a night of partying, started a pan of water boiling, forgot about it and went to bed. Actually, the pan was Silverstone lined. I woke up in the morning to a house full of blue smoke and a dead parakeet. When I told my mom (leaving out the part where I'd been drinking), she told me she'd heard leaving a Silverstone pan on the stove can kill birds and other small pets. I was like yeah, well, it's true.

[MrPrax]

11. Simple solution...

never use telfon or non-stick pans...
I never have...the stuff flakes off when you wash it anyhow....
Nothing like copper-bottomed stainless steel...

[dsc]

15. I use that for the most part as well

I have been known to leave pots on and forget but I don't own birds. Luckily it doesn't off dogs or I would have killed Hershey by now (I have a couple of teflon pans left and did that with one).

[Deja Q]

12. I've known that for years,

though not everybody raises birds and not everybody who wants to raise a bird is going to do research. It's nice to see somebody air this story, but they surely could have done it at least 6 years ago...?

That woman who was interviewed is an embarrasing !&@^#%$ing imbecile. Her answers to the questions posed were shifty when not shitty. She's an emarrassment to the people she's trying to represent! On the plus side, more 2-watt-light-bulbs like her trying to defend the poisoning of people/human rights only make the truth that much more disturbing, which leads to action on the part of the people. So, bring all the idiots in front of the camera. It's time for a consumer revolution anyway. We are not at the disposal of these careless companies. THEY are here to do provide goods for us that WORK, WORK RELIABLY, AND WON'T HARM OR KILL PEOPLE AND THEIR PETS! Sheesh, how much more perverted can America get?)

Now I do use teflon products, but I use a minute amount of common sense: My pet parrot is in another room. The fan above the stove (just like the fan you have over your stove and like over every stove in the country) is ON to direct the air up and out of the room entirely. And I ALWAYS turn off the stove when not in use. And I NEVER use high heat when cooking, good grief!

[dusty64]

14. I saw this and the

spokesperson for dupont was truly frightening. I'm about to completely clean out my kitchen cupboards.

[Cooley Hurd]

16. That explains all the dead birds around...

...Reagan (the Teflon President)...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. cast iron is the best cookware..heavy as shit but healthy

[GCP]

18. It's also a source of iron if you're anemic

No kidding - a little bit gets into the food. It's good for you.