Is PTFE/Teflon harmful?

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#46
jamesjung21 said:
Think about this... Using tetrafluoroethylene tubings around particularly hot tubes like 6C33C as insulation may release some of vapours into your room air while you are enjoying music :dead:
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No, you can't get the tube nearly hot enough without killing the tube long before the Teflon starts breaking down.

BTW, since Teflon is typically extruded at 500F and a bit higher, the breakdown at those wussy temperatures is REALLY slow.


And a note on pans: copper pans are indeed great to cook on, but a real ******* to maintain. And you can't use them for ultra-high heat cooking. A darn nice second choice is aluminum cladded with stainless steel. All-Clad is a particularly excellent brand; to take mine away, you'll have to pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

For wok cooking, the plain old steel ones, available cheep at Chinese groceries, are still the best. But very few of us have enough heat in our kitchens to use them properly.
 
#47
Maintaining the copper pans is not necessary. The oxides look better than the salmon color of polished copper. Maintaining the inside is difficult if steel-clad, like some Mauviel product lines, but the tinned ones really don't stick much, and when something does stick when you're frying, I find that just adding a bit of water while the pan is still on the flame instantly softens burned on stuff.
 
#48
Interesting thread.

PTFE is approved for permanent surgical implantation due to its high inertness. So, it's not harmful as is. If heated to breakdown temperature though, that's a whole different story. I don't think it's something that need concern us from an audio perspective.
 
#50
gfinlayson said:
Interesting thread.

PTFE is approved for permanent surgical implantation due to its high inertness. So, it's not harmful as is. If heated to breakdown temperature though, that's a whole different story. I don't think it's something that need concern us from an audio perspective.
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Yeah, the medical industry is never wrong.

But, again, I'm not saying Teflon-insulated cables are harmful. And even if they should be ever so slightly, they are one of our least concerns in life. I would rather worry about those PCBs.

Man, to think I caused this thread!
 
#51
phn said:
Man, to think I caused this thread!
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That'll teach you to make innocent comments! 😀

Seriously, though, the danger of PTFE in audio use must be minuscule compared to the danger of mercury vapour rectifiers. Oddly, I remember being warned about potentially dangerous vapour from machining PTFE when I was a teenager at school. I was warned not to cut so fast that it became hot (the stuff's so soft that it wasn't really a problem). Similarly, I was warned to be careful when machining acrylic (Perspex) because it could release cyanogens. Perspex turned out to be a lot trickier and certainly released some powerful vapours.

I really regret not going back and formally thanking my "Design & Technology" teacher for his excellent teaching; I just didn't recognize the value of his teaching at the time, and now it's too late.
 
#52
phn said:


Yeah, the medical industry is never wrong.

But, again, I'm not saying Teflon-insulated cables are harmful. And even if they should be ever so slightly, they are one of our least concerns in life. I would rather worry about those PCBs.

Man, to think I caused this thread!
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Oooh I've gotta,

PTFE is used I think because of its low friction especially in replacement knee & hip joints joints which are real awkward because of the high pressures involved - mother natures cartilage turns out to be quite special. If the trade off is made like it is in the UK its probably that you are too broken to worry about side effects 25yrs from now. 🙂

one of my uni projects involved dentistry, PTFE wasnt listed as something we could use, maybe because of the enzymes in the mouth?

Speaking of which, my biggest problem from teflon insulated cables is that they can chip your teeth when you pull the sleeving off 😀

Finally these steel Clad pans they dont have any Ally that can get in the food to they? - linked to Parkinsons I heard. Theres probably a study somewhere saying iron oxide is bad for you too

Moral - you gotta die of something, hopefully not soon

Andy
 
#57
Aluminum sucks for cooking for other reasons. Crap sticks to it. A properly kept (oiled) cast iron works much better, and is also cheap. If you can spend the money, get thick copper (2 mm+) that's tinned on the inside. In a few years you'll have to re-tin it, but there's a shop that does it even in my city here in North America, and I'm sure it's easy to do yourself. Alternatively, some copper cookware is available with stainless steel coating on the inside, but it sticks more, whereas the tin is nearly as good as the non-stick coatings, minus the toxicity those release when scratched and overheated (plus, no one makes non-stick-coated copper cookware that I'm aware of).
 
#58
HI,

It was in the newspapers some 10 years ago: A lady went sick after using her magnetron. A few days later she died in the hospital. They could later trace down the cause. It was the used teflon electric isolation that was overheated due to malfunction of the magnetron tube.

Teflon emits highly toxic fluor gasses when heated above 300 – 350 deg C.

Again, be careful when and where to use it. Normally at normal temperatures it is safe and has very good electrical properties as an insulator.

😉
 
#59
to make light if a nasty episode...

Pjotr said:
A lady went sick after using her magnetron.
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sounds like the first line of a limerick - what rhymes with magnetron...

Its true though, theres something about the smell of circuits. - cant be 'good' for you!...

But actually, Is Teflon worse than othe plastics though? If I recall. Polystyrene emits cyanide when burning! good for cap's though.

guess the moral is dont abuse it?

Andy
 
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