131–140 of 239 posts
Headline is a lie: as we finally find out halfway through the article, it's not soap but lye, sodium hydroxide. The solvent is the fairly nontoxic dimethyl sulfoxide, so both of these are safe to release into the environment. In https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32515659 sbierwagen reports that the reaction requires 120-degree temperatures so this isn't suitable for in-situ remediation.
Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.
Cast iron is low maintenance, just don't over think the seasoning thing and don't cook overly acidic things. Cook with oil, clean with soap and hot water (use a plastic scraper if you need to...), dry on the stove and once dry wipe with a paper towel you put a little drop of oil on. Wait until the oil just smokes and turn it off. Done. Takes 1min tops. You can use steel utensils, just don't go scratching at it when c…
Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.
You can effectively make stainless steel non-stick with correct use of a neutral oil and either cooking at a slightly lower heat and/or keeping the contents moving. Have to be ok with some oil though, for most foods it shouldn't be a problem.
It's not teflon, but I haven't come across anything that sticks to the pan in a consequential manner. Scrub with stainless steel scrubber to clean, done.
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I’m not sure about general treatment, but one thing that you can’t do is let water sit in there, as it’ll rust.
Having rust is fine though, it's just oxidized iron. Sure it won't look pretty but it's largely harmless in food. The main caveat I've seen is when making acidic foods with iron cookware (cast iron or carbon steel) it may affect the taste ever so slightly as some of the acid is reacted and takes off the top layer so you end up with a "stain" that looks like the food. Still just cosmetic only though.
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You probably know what you are talking about but the lack of research doesn't fill me with confidence [1]: > However, at temperatures above 500°F (260°C), Teflon coatings on nonstick cookware start to break down, releasing toxic chemicals into the air. [...] Polymer fume fever consists of temporary, flu-like symptoms such as chills, fever, headache, and body aches. The onset occurs after 4–10 hours of exposure, and t…
Maybe you don't realize how hot 500F is - your oven maxes out at 450. At 500 everything in the plan is black charcoal. Any oil in the pan caught fire.
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Cast iron is low maintenance, just don't over think the seasoning thing and don't cook overly acidic things. Cook with oil, clean with soap and hot water (use a plastic scraper if you need to...), dry on the stove and once dry wipe with a paper towel you put a little drop of oil on. Wait until the oil just smokes and turn it off. Done. Takes 1min tops. You can use steel utensils, just don't go scratching at it when c…
I scrape the heck out of my cast iron pan using a bit of chain mail I keep by the sink in order to clean it. I do reapply oil and heat as you suggest. Do you reckon I'm missing out on some benefits of cast iron because I scrape it so relentlessly?
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I bought a couple of SolidTeknics[1] wrought iron pans, and I love them. You have to season them first, which essentially involves blackening them by burning good cooking oils onto them. I used rice bran oil for that. It's a bit of a mission, but you only do it once. They are great because you can get them really hot and they have excellent heat inertia. You can put them in the oven if needed. And cleanup is simple:…
tbh i've never gone wrong with lodge and it's a much better budget option if u don't have the cash for that. used it for years and works great.
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That's true, but in and of itself, it's less toxic to humans than ethanol is. It degrades in the environment quite readily, as well. If we were looking for a chemical to deploy at scale to clean up PFAS in existing environments, we could do much worse.
It’s a carrier. It introduces whatever is in it to your bloodstream.
Headline is a lie: as we finally find out halfway through the article, it's not soap but lye, sodium hydroxide. The solvent is the fairly nontoxic dimethyl sulfoxide, so both of these are safe to release into the environment. In https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32515659 sbierwagen reports that the reaction requires 120-degree temperatures so this isn't suitable for in-situ remediation.
The reaction can occur at more moderate temperatures. There is more analysis (with experimental results) further down in the paper:
> Substantial defluorination still occurred when the isolated PFOA degradation product (perfluoro-1H-heptane 2) was subjected to degradation conditions but heated to only 40°C (table S3).
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Just one. Not one of those links is a long term study on ingested PTFE coatings.
And you think that ingesting PTFE is somehow worse than an actual PTFE implant? Why you insisting it must be a digestion study? Do you make such requirements for everything you interact with? Has someone done a study on using paper straws? Or plastic plates? Or metal spoons? Do you understand that when you eat PTFE it comes out exactly the same way it went in? Even powerful acids can't do anything to PTFE, what makes…
I think that it isn't even close to being equivalent.
> Why you insisting it must be a digestion study
You are the one who made the statement: "It's about the most inert material that you can possibly ingest." so prove it, or admit that this is your opinion and not backed by research.
I'm not even asking for research comparing the effects of the ingestion of PTFE with every other "material that you could possibly ingest", just for any data, at all, on the long term effects of ingesting PTFE.
It's my understanding that the toxicity of ingested PTFE is still an open question, that there is no consensus on the safety or dangers of Teflon in food, and no research into the effects of ingesting it over/after long periods of time (say > 20 years).
If you have actual knowledge of advancements in the science I'd like to see what was found, but otherwise let's just acknowledge that there is still far too much work to be done before we can make meaningful claims about the safety of ingesting PTFE. At best, what we can say right now is that it won't instantly kill you, but the long term effects of ingesting PTFE on the body are unknown.