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Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

science.org

41–50 of 239 posts

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#41
post #38

The paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm8868 The "soap and solvent" is sodium hydroxide (lye) and DMSO at 120 degC. Those are... fairly... well behaved chemicals, but lye is stout stuff and DMSO attacks nitrile gloves. You could imagine a remediation process that uses this process but the combo ain't exactly Dawn dish soap. I'd almost prefer pyroprocessing over it.

We just need to boil the world's oceans now

Or fill the oceans with oil and set it on fire!

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#42
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High temperatures do not bother Teflon, there's no reason to dispose of it because of that. According to the EPA Teflon frying pans do not leech any PFOA into food, that's not where people are exposed. I've noticed that for some reason a ton of people think they get exposure to PFOA from cookware, and that's simply not true. PFOA exposure mainly comes from waterproofing coatings, slippery coatings (like the bottom of…

I don't know what's released from Teflon pans at high heat, but Teflon kills birds. I know this because I killed two birds by forgetting about a pan I was warming up. Wasn't enough to make the pan look any different; was enough to instantly kill the birds. https://www.teflon.com/en/consumers/teflon-coatings-cookware...

My family learned this after replacing a stove with one that had a non-stick interior a couple decades ago. That was a pretty major bummer.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#43

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 could get a new pan with 'ceramic' coating. It's just like teflon in basically every way.

A friend of mine bought a "ceramic" coated pan which turns out to be PFAS.

For an overview of "real" ceramic pans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G21f_ny_lxs

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#44
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing beats cast iron. They aren't hard to take care of.(In spite of the rhetoric.) Actually easier, once you get a good surface on them. Pots, frying pans, woks, etc. They work very well. The most important thing is to give them time to heat up. Once they are, they hold the heat very well, so can cook at any temperature.

I prefer carbon steel more. They heat up faster and are smooth (unlike a lot of cast iron pans which are rough). But both works well enough.

its just because they don't bother polishing them or turning them on a lathe. iron it pretty soft, you can sand down the rough ones without much trouble (or just buy an old Griswold!)

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#45
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's honestly one of the things I wish we could get a handle on. Company gets sued for using and hiding the danger of a compound they learned fairly quickly was toxic. Goes and invents another compound and switches to it without having to prove its safety. After it becoming public that they were intentionally hiding dangers for a half century, I feel we should take away their ability to be given the benefit of the…

> but it's not like the final product (Teflon) is safe to ingest either Sure it is. I don't think a less toxic material than Teflon even exists. It's toxicity is comparable to water. The LD50 of Teflon is > 11,280 mg/kg. Water by comparison is 90,000 mg/kg. They were not able to measure the exact toxicity because it's impossible to eat so much.

[deleted]

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#46
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's honestly one of the things I wish we could get a handle on. Company gets sued for using and hiding the danger of a compound they learned fairly quickly was toxic. Goes and invents another compound and switches to it without having to prove its safety. After it becoming public that they were intentionally hiding dangers for a half century, I feel we should take away their ability to be given the benefit of the…

> but it's not like the final product (Teflon) is safe to ingest either Sure it is. I don't think a less toxic material than Teflon even exists. It's toxicity is comparable to water. The LD50 of Teflon is > 11,280 mg/kg. Water by comparison is 90,000 mg/kg. They were not able to measure the exact toxicity because it's impossible to eat so much.

Bullshit. There is “toxic” and there is “causes cancer, even outside California, reduces fertility, and negatively affects fetal development.” Just because something doesn’t kill you immediately does not mean it isn’t harmful.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#47
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just need to boil the world's oceans now

Or fill the oceans with oil and set it on fire!

I always knew Pemex was a bastion of environmentalism. [1]

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/fire-offshore-pemex-...

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#48
post #9

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.

High temperatures do not bother Teflon, there's no reason to dispose of it because of that. According to the EPA Teflon frying pans do not leech any PFOA into food, that's not where people are exposed. I've noticed that for some reason a ton of people think they get exposure to PFOA from cookware, and that's simply not true. PFOA exposure mainly comes from waterproofing coatings, slippery coatings (like the bottom of…

[deleted]

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#49

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.

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.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#50
post #22

The paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm8868 The "soap and solvent" is sodium hydroxide (lye) and DMSO at 120 degC. Those are... fairly... well behaved chemicals, but lye is stout stuff and DMSO attacks nitrile gloves. You could imagine a remediation process that uses this process but the combo ain't exactly Dawn dish soap. I'd almost prefer pyroprocessing over it.

DMSO is not well-behaved. It easily penetrates human skin, and carries solutes with it. Don't touch! "DMSO can cause contaminants, toxins, and medicines to be absorbed through the skin, which may cause unexpected effects. "Because DMSO easily penetrates the skin, substances dissolved in DMSO may be quickly absorbed. Glove selection is important when working with DMSO. Butyl rubber, fluoroelastomer, neoprene, or thick…

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.

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