Teflon and Non-stain Products May Be Harmful to Your Health

August 12, 2009
By Kathryn Au

Chemicals in our everyday environment may be harming our health as well as our ability to have children. The latest chemicals to come under public scrutiny by the media are a group of compounds known as perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, which are chemicals with fluorine atoms attached to chains of carbons. They are very stable chemicals that do not break down easily. Used in the production of many household items for stain resistance and water and oil repellence, these chemicals are found everywhere.

Scientists worry about two types of PFCs: perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as PFOA or C8, and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS. You can find C8 in Teflon (non-stick cooking pans), pesticides, waterproof or stain-proof clothing, personal products, sprays for leather and shoes, paints, and cleaning products. PFOS had been used to make Scotchgard, but the company who makes it, 3M, decided to stop making the chemical for safety reasons.

Since PFCs are so chemically stable—meaning they do not break down or react with other chemicals easily—people used to think that they would not do anything to our bodies. Unfortunately, more and more research shows that PFCs actually can affect us. They can accumulate in our liver and gallbladder and last a long time in our bodies. Exposure to PFOS is linked with cancer, delays in physical development, damage to liver, and severe birth defects. Exposure to C8 is related to an under-active thyroid gland in adults, which can lead to fatigue, depression, anxiety, weight gain, hair loss, and low libido; in fetuses, babies, or children, exposure to C8 is related to mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech, and problems with motor skills [1]. It also affects the immune system’s ability to fight disease and causes liver tumors in fish. Scientists now suspect that C8 is also an endocrine disruptor—a chemical that can affect the body’s control over hormone levels [2].

Recently, a group of three scientists making up the C8 Science Panel found that higher levels of PFOS and C8 coincide with higher levels of uric acid, a risk factor for hypertension and heart disease [3]. One study shows that PFOA slows breast development in mice who were exposed through their mothers either in the womb or through breastfeeding [4]. Another recent study found that pregnant women with higher infertility—meaning they took longer than a year to get pregnant—had higher levels of PFCs in their bloodstream[5].

People are exposed to PFCs mostly through eating contaminated food, followed by breathing in contaminated dust and air [6]. PFCs can break down from Teflon pans when heated at high temperatures. They are also present in grease-resistant food containers like pizza boxes and microwave popcorn bags. Children are more susceptible to exposure because they play near the ground and put things in their mouth; also, since children are still developing, exposure to chemicals might harm them more.

In 2000 the only company that makes PFOS, 3M, agreed to stop making it by 2002. Then, in 2006 the eight companies that make C8 or PFOA volunteered to stop making it by 2015. Although these companies are taking important steps to protect our futures, this may be too little too late. Since PFCs are extremely stable compounds, they can practically last forever in our environment without breaking down. And though they might not be sold after 2015, they are still present in products we already have in our household, like furniture, clothing, and cooking pans.

For now, here are some ways to limit how much PFCs get into your body:

• Use cast iron or stainless steel pans instead of Teflon non-stick pans.
• If you must use Teflon non-stick pans, do not overheat them. Besides contaminating food with PFCs, overheating Teflon pans poison pet birds with the gas released.
• Do not have your furniture and carpets treated for stain and dirt resistance.
• Eat less packaged foods and greasy fast foods, whose containers can have PFCs.
• Avoid personal care products and cosmetics that have an ingredient with “fluoro-” or “perfluoro-” in the name.

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For further information:
http://www.pollutioninpeople.org/toxics/pfcs
http://fluoridealert.org/

Sources:
[1] Environmental Working Group. 2003. PFCs: a family of chemicals that contaminate the planet. Retrieved from www.ewg.org/reports/pfcworld
[2] Hood, E. 2008. Alternative mechanism for PFOA? trout studies shed light on liver effects. Environmental Health Perspectives 116(8): 351.
[3] Ward, Jr., K. (2009, January 28). C8 panel finds possible link to high uric acid. The Charleston Gazette. Retrieved on February 3, 2009, from http://wvgazette.com/News/200901270568
[4] Benninghoff, A. D. 2009, January 29. PFOA slows breast development in mice exposed via mom. Environmental Health News. Retrieved from http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/pfoa-impairs-breast-development-in-mice
[5] Fei, C., McLaughlin, J. K., Lipworth, L., Olsen, J. 2009. Maternal levels of perfluorinated chemicals and subfecundity. Human Reproduction 1(1): 1-6. doi:10.1093/humrep/den490
[6] Trudel, D., Horowitz, L., Wormuth, M., Scheringer, M., Cousins, I. T., Hungerbuhler, K. 2008. Estimating consumer exposure to PFOS and PFOA. Risk Analysis 28(2): 251-269. DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008. 01017.x