Teflon Background

What is Teflon?

Teflon is a brand name and registered trademark of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company, Dupont for short. Teflon is a non-stick, stain resistant, and durable material used in a variety of products. This versatile material, which most people associate primarily with cookware such as frying pans, muffin tins, and cake pans, has been in existence for more than 40 years. Teflon however, is used for more than just cookware it is also used in personal care products such as lens coatings for eyeglasses and nail hardeners for nail polish, as a stain protector in fabrics used to make clothing, to make carpets and other textiles stain-resistant, and in a number of automotive and industrial applications including wiper blades, marine coatings,

The story of Teflon begins nearly ten years before that however, on April 6, 1938. A chemist by the name of Dr. Roy J. Plunkett was working in one of Dupont?s laboratories in New Jersey and discovered Teflon by accident. While conducting experiments on tetrafluoroethylene, a substance associated with Freon� refrigerants, he noticed that a frozen sample had polymerized or plasticized into another substance called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a slippery substance that is inert under almost any chemical

In a word, yes, but not necessarily in the way you might think. Teflon has recently come under fire by consumer groups and individuals as a possible source of health risks, primarily as a result of the confusion between Teflon, the brand name, and PFOA. PFOA is the synthetic chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid and is also known as C-8, the name it was originally manufactured under by 3M Corporation. Contrary to popular belief, Teflon and PFOA are not synonymous in any way and should not be viewed as such. In fact, according to Dupont, using these names interchangeably violates trademark laws.

Since Teflon is only a brand name, Teflon in and of itself is not a health risk. As a consumer who uses cookware with Teflon non-stick coatings, you may or may not be at risk for adverse health effects due to degradation of the non-stick coating under certain conditions. If you are someone who works in a facility that manufactures Teflon and during the manufacturing process are exposed to PFOA, a chemical used in the manufacturing process for Teflon, the answer is equally ambiguous based on current