this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Me? Oh, just cooking stuff on this aluminum pan covered in PTFE plastic that I'm scraping with this chromated utensil into everyone's plate.....

[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Common misconception that the coating itself is the problem. The manufacturing of the coating is bad, when it's on there you can digest the flakes and they don't do anything. That's kinda the point of them, being inert. Correct me if I misunderstood this!

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Making PTFE is very polluting. However the inert plastics in our bodies come from the pans and scraping. What they do or how our bodies respond is a whole different story. Just because it doesn't degrade it doesn't mean your immune system is going to ignore it and not try to remove it or attack it. The response to it can be a cancer or an allergy or nothing at all. The particles can end up blocking something like any blockage in a plumbing system.

Here's where people stop listening and then its just a crazy person talking. But once we have a good look and we observe the details, there's no disputing it. I've personally have had PTFE and aluminum under a microscope and applied all sorts of scraping to it. From afar, it looks like it's resistant to all sorts of punishment, and it is. But up close it's a soft material, lots of things can scraped it. There's no denying that it makes particles and you can go buy a cheap eBay microscope and prove it to your self. Everything else beyond that is where you need to trust researchers and medical professionals. If they say it causes cancer then so be it, stop using the pans.

[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 2 points 8 hours ago

No argument there, rub two things together and there is going to be debris of some kind.

The thing you said about the body reacting to and not with the particles got me thinking. You are absolutely right about that since asbestos causes exactly the same problem by not being degraded. It is safe to assume PTFE creates a similar effect.

[–] FEIN@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i get your point but why would you scrape a nonstick pan

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It just happens. One day you are too lazy. But even using plastic utensils ofcourse will create rubbing particles. I've actually investigated this at work for particulate control processes. Then you got patterned aluminum pans coated with PTFE.... Obviously the high points on the pan surface will erode or cause utensil erosion leading to more plastics in my balls.

[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not really. Hardness matters. 'plastic' utensils are soft. They're incapable of damaging harder material.

Where do your investigations get published and peer reviewed?

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

This is very simply tested. 30x microscope is more than sufficient to observed microscopic and macroscopic damage.

A quick internet search: TFE (Teflon), which is known for being soft (Shore D 50-60) and waxy. Harder, more rigid plastics include PEEK, Polycarbonate, Nylon, Acetal (POM), PCTFE and UHMW-PE.

Practically any utencil can catch some burnt food and become abrasive instantly. LOL. We're just scratching the plastics into our food every day.

[–] FEIN@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

fascinating, that's pretty cool that you studied that :)