High(ish) temp scrambled eggs stick for me, but not to any great degree. The low and slow is another thing entirely. It’s a layer of stick, I swear it bonds to the pan. I tried it once with my non-stick where everything else is just a wipe to clean and I still had to soak.
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So technically, the problem is not Teflon itself. The PFAS and related chemicals are used in the manufacturing of Teflon. Teflon should not contain or release these chemicals (although it has been shown to do so if super-heated). The problem is the wastewater from the manufacturing plants. The book “Exposure” (which inspired the movie “Dark Waters”) goes into this specific point in great detail.
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This makes sense given the extensive environmental PFAS problems in Minnesota due to a 3M plant in town. Nothing to do with consumer cookware choices: Health department says 22 Minnesota water systems have PFAS above new federal limits | MPR News
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I’ve often heard that’s actually a good thing for those who could use more iron in their diets. Don’t know if it’s true though that we absorb that iron the same way we do the iron that’s in various foods.
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Iron is iron. I’m in the American South so cast iron skillets are mandatory, but I’d be using them anyway. No stick easy clean and they work on my induction stove.
The 12” one is heavy as shit, ain’t gonna lie.
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Elemental iron is not very well absorbed, and my chemistry chops are not good enough to guess how it might react in foods to form bioavailable salts, but yeah, at worst, harmless.
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The Lucky Iron Fish is a thing, but way out of my league to evaluate if it’s a real thing that works.
“It might be safe!” Hey, I’m sold! 
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Food Network says:
The type of iron that comes from cast iron cooking is nonheme iron and is safe to consume. It is the same type of iron as found in plant sources such as beans, spinach and tofu.
And
In one study, researchers looked at the amount of iron in 20 foods (3.5 oz portions of each) before and after cooking in cast iron pans. Most foods (90%) contained more iron when cooked in iron pans
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You can pry my Gore-Tax jacket and shoes from my cold, dead and rain soaked body.
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I never fry anything in our stainless steel pans or the lovely enameled casserole we received as a gift. Everything sticks to them. But we’re blessed with a couple of hand-me down cast iron pans so smooth you have to chase your egg around to get it on the spatula, so find yourself a used cast iron and you’ll be glad you did. And the Lodge carbon steel skillet we bought was like a skating rink the very first time we used it.
ETA: Even a rough cast-iron pan gets smooth pretty quickly if you use metal spatulas when you cook in it.
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So… why exactly does xenon do that? I guess having a big, “fluffy” electron cloud has something to do with it somehow. (But then, the exact opposite would be true for fluorine?)
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There’s no simple answer to any such question. The molecules involved in biochemistry are typically large and complicated, and any random thing wandering by might interact with any particular one in an impactful way–though it usually won’t.
One of the reasons pharmaceutical research is as expensive as it is is even with hojillions of dollars worth of computers, programmed by guys who’ve forgotten more about quantum mechanics than I’ve forgotten about… er… that thing with the ball and the stick, on the green place… Despite all that, our predictions about molecular interactions are still pretty meh. Not only are there are lot of surprises in animal trials–they’re different surprises for each species of animal.
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KALW’s “Your Call” just did a show on the dangers of PFAS, with resources & links on their web page:
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Regarding PFAS/PFOA, best refer to the EPA for the risks and current regulatory environment surrounding the compounds:
EPA rolled out classification of the compounds as hazardous compounds, subject to CERCLA regulations and established drinking water standards for the 6 most common compounds this spring. The standards are very conservative, with parts per trillion limits. For comparison, metals and petroleum limits are measured by parts per million, and carcinogenic solvents by parts per billion.
The compounds have been used widely in fire fighting foam, hence most of the big plumes that we are dealing with are related to fire training centers, the military, and airports. However, their qualities as a surfactant led to their use in water repellant fabrics, household cleaners, food containers, even cosmetics. And as it releases from these products, it gets into the wastewater stream.
As previously discussed, their chemistry makes them highly mobile, and difficult to break down. And their widespread use and persistence means if we sample for it, we will likely find it (similar to dioxins and polyaromatic hydrocarbons).
Fortunately, because it is a hot-button emerging contaminant, a lot of resources are being targeted to evaluating existing remedial technologies, new technologies, and treatment of PFAS-contaminated wastes.
And because its a newly listed contaminant, it means that we are in the process of looking at existing remedial sites and determining if it needs to be added to the list of potential contaminants for sites. I expect to be making a lot of uncomfortable calls over the next year.
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Hard disagree, since they’re asking why a monoatomic gas is anesthetic.
On the PFAS side, we’re getting protein misfolds in presence of a few particles of tetrafluoroethylene or monomer or lysate. Apply l33t SEM, TEM, or GC/GC and you got 'em.
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Yyyyeeessss… but the ORGANISM is not monatomic.
You can see the complexity at Xenon - Wikipedia . For example, it notes that one of the pathways involved is “Like nitrous oxide and cyclopropane, xenon activates the two-pore domain potassium channel TREK-1.” Those are three completely different chemicals: one inorganic gas, one noble gas, and one three-carbon ring saturated with hydrogens.
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Sure, it bio-accumulates, but I still don’t understand why these accumulating inert molecules are causing biological harm. For heavy metals that also bio-accumulate like lead, they are harmful because they create reactive radicals that can damage cell structures like DNA, the membrane, etc.
My google-fu wasn’t able to find anything on the toxicodynamics of PFAS though.
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A friend of mine did her PhD thesis on PTFE, and managed to find a new way of manufacturing it that was even more toxic than the current method. Which is still useful information, abit more in a ‘don’t do this’ kind of way.
(She got her PhD btw)
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It sounds like the mechanisms aren’t well understood yet, but the main one seems to be activating fatty acid receptors that regulate various metabolic pathways including epigenetic effects.
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