Dump those Teflon Pans

Many years ago we made our mom throw out her beloved aluminum pots and pans because of fears about links to Alzheimers disease, and bought her a nice set of teflon coated utensils to replace it. Perhaps this was not a wise move- a University of Toronto chemist has shown that Teflon coated pans release perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a "likely carcinogen" and other chemicals when heated to 360 celsius, admittedly far above normal cooking temperatures, unless you use a solar sizzler. Manufacturer Dupont has been hit with a US$5-Billion lawsuit from people who claim that they were not warned about the dangers of chemicals related to Teflon; Dupont says it its Teflon products are safe and do not contain or release PFOA. We look to our chemistry treehugger John for more technical information on this issue. ::Nature