By Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Flu season is around the corner, but right now there's a lot of talk about Teflon Flu -- a set of symptoms including headache, fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, sweating and a bad taste in your mouth, that is caused by exposure to toxic fumes from nonstick cookware. It seems that Teflon and some replacement nonstick coatings that claim to be free of forever chemicals can make you sick when you inhale the PFOAs that they release when heated. Poison centers around the U.S. reported 267 cases in a recent year, and many more go unreported.
Consumer Reports wanted to see if nonstick pans that claimed to be PFOA-free really are, and if consumers can rely on other claims related to the broader category of forever-chemicals called PFAS. It turns out that in their testing, ceramic nonstick pans were free of PFOAs but pans that had other coatings and claimed to be safer were not. The Environmental Protection Agency agrees. They found that a substitute coating, GenX, is associated with harmful effects on the kidney, blood, immune system and liver and is linked to an elevated risk of cancer. An article in NDRC.org summed it up: "Taking PFOA and PFOS ... out of products has only led to industry replacing them with related PFAS chemicals that pose similar risks."
The solution? Opt for metal and cast-iron pans. If that doesn't suit you, stick with nonstick ceramics. And for more info on staying healthy, read "Can Supplements Help Protect Against the Harmful Effects of Pollution?" on the iHerb.com blog.
