Hey why be born in the first place, life is the real killer. Joe Goss RPT Mother Goose Tools imatunr@srvinet.com www.mothergoosetools.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Fox" <sarah@graphic-fusion.com> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 9:24 PM Subject: Re: Dangers of Teflon (TM) > Hi Thump, > > >I just went to a lovely High School honors student > > science fair, where I saw a terrifying, convincing and > > excellent display of the birth defects that Teflon > > (TM) can cause. > > Makes me not want to use Teflon powder on > > knuckles any more, regardless of how well it > > lubricates them. > > I wouldn't worry about it. Teflon poses the following two biological > hazards, which have been known by the scientific community for a very long > time: > > (1) Workers manufacturing Teflon are exposed to PFOA, a reactant used in > its synthesis. Dupont was of course nice enough not to warn their workers > about the hazards of this chemical. However, once pregnant factory workers > synthesize the stuff and then go off and give birth to the next generation > of mutant Dupont factory workers, the end product is inert, at least at room > temperature. Just don't drink the water anywhere near a Dupont plant. > (FYI, PFOA does not break down in the environment, will be with us forever, > and is circulating in measurable quantity in the blood stream of 90% of the > folks on this list, probably including me.) > > (2) When you line the frying pan with the stuff and heat it up enough to > scorch it, it gives off toxic fumes that are known to kill household birds > and are likely not very healthy for unborn babies (or anyone else). Of > course the scorched byproducts also wind up in the food and have been known > for a long time to be carcinogenic. (The pans with flaking Teflon are > doubly hazardous, since the food is also exposed to the aluminum. Aluminum > also causes birth defects and corrodes nicely when exposed to acidic foods > such as tomato products. Hint: Whatever is hazardous to birds and babies is > also hazardous to adults, just less so.) > > Anyway, short of some of Glenn Gould's warp-speed passages, I doubt anything > is going to scorch the Teflon on a piano's knuckles. Use it in good health. > If you worry that PFOE and scorched Teflon are biohazards (as I do), the > solution to the problem is to require that Dupont take effective measures to > protect their workers from PFOA exposure, not allow the stuff to be released > into the environment, and ban Teflon-lined cookware. If this can't be > done, then yes, ban Teflon. Ban aluminum pans too! And MSG... and the > multitudes of other hazardous substances that the FDA won't lift a finger to > control -- because it is not in the financial interests of big business. In > fact, just ban the FDA, because they really get in the way of our health > much more than they protect it. > > But again, Teflon is perfectly safe at sub-scorching temperatures, at least > so far as any of us know. Once it ends up in a bag as a fine white powder, > the damage has already been done elsewhere. > > Peace, > Sarah > ... a concerned scientist who has been on the MSG and aluminum soap box many > times before > > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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