71–80 of 220 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not saying that teflon is bad when ingested, but asbestos and glass are also chemically inert and it doesn't make them ok to ingest.
Silicates like glass and asbestos are hard and cause physical damage, but PTFE is a soft polymer.
Wonderful fabric for mountain gear. Unfortunately, like Teflon cooking pans, its amazing properties come from a coating with perfluorinated octyl sulfonate, a known endocrine disruptor: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7722801/
Teflon(brand) coated pans don't use PFOA or PFOS in their manufacture and PFOA is banned in the US for cookware.
I recently learned in order for a product to have the Gore-Tex label, not only do you have to license the process/formula from them, but you have to send engineering samples to them and they perform their own independent testing before allowing you to actually sell the product. There’s no doubt part of the success is the chemistry of the product, but the required independent testing to very high standards also likely…
Not only that, but Gore will honour their “guaranteed to keep you dry” warranty. I had a Gore-Tex jacket that the manufacturer refused to replace after it delaminated about 3 years after I bought it. One call to Gore and I got the purchase price of the jacket in a prepaid credit card sent to me after sending them the jacket.
isn't this stuff in the same family as the "forever chemicals"?
But I'm not sure how much that really matters... a regular un-fluoridated polymer like polyethylene that sticks around for a thousand years is not all that different in practice from a fluoropolymer that will stick around for a million years. If they're not recycled they go to landfill.
Maybe more to the point, I'd much prefer to contaminate the environment with inert chemicals with a million year lifespan than with toxic or bio-accumulating chemicals with a thousand year lifespan, and the good news is that the longevity of fluoropolymers is due to their total lack of reactivity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see much Gore-Tex(tm) stuff around anymore. I was shopping for some rain gear and I don't think it came up. Are there better materials now or is it just too expensive?
Most companies are just using their own equivalent PTFE membranes because it's cheaper
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's waterproof if you maintain it. There's special detergent and whatnot. We use Gore-TEX jackets in the Marines, and in the field you can tell who washed their gear correctly and who didn't.
Wow, I had no idea the US military is that well equipped. Somehow I always thought the military have to tough it out while the civilians get all the fancy outdoor tech. You wouldn’t happen to have the official Marines Goretex washing manual handy, would you?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Silicates like glass and asbestos are hard and cause physical damage, but PTFE is a soft polymer.
Small chemically inert substances can gunk up your cells and tissues even if they are soft.
Anything bigger than a "small molecule" doesn't make it through the membranes into your bloodstream. Even individual proteins are too big, let alone a chunk of your frying pan big enough to see.