The Killer in Your Kitchen: The One Item You Probably Use Everyday

Photo credit: bigstock.com

Photo credit: bigstock.com

Although you wouldn’t dream of keeping poisons in your pantry, or anywhere near where you are cooking and preparing meals, you probably do have a deadly toxin right in your kitchen cabinets that you are completely unaware of. Worse than that, you probably cook with it almost every day, slowly poisoning yourself and your family bit by bit. What is the killer that is lurking in your kitchen cabinets?

Teflon coated pans, also known as non-stick cookware.

They look harmless enough, true, but did you know that the substance that Teflon is made from is a deadly toxin if you ingest or inhale enough of it? Damaged pans, where the Teflon is chipped or scratched, releases even more of these toxins into your food than newer or non-damaged pans.

Did you know that should your Teflon coated pan get overheated, it releases enough toxic gases that can kill birds outright? It’s true. This is one reason you should never keep your pet canary or parakeet anywhere near the kitchen! Think about this, though: if the gas from this cookware can kill a small animal almost immediately, what kind of damage is it doing to you and your family?

Why is this simple item so dangerous? It’s the chemicals that make up that non-stick part of the pan. First, it’s made from chemicals that the human body was never intended to digest. The main part of what makes up Teflon has a long and ominous sounding name: perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. When you heat your non-stick pan over a very high flame it releases many of its carcinogenic chemicals. At 1,000 degrees, your non-stick pan will release a chemical called PFIB, a nerve agent. Teflon was originally a waste product from the production of Freon, the gas that is used in your refrigerator and air conditioner.

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2 Comments

  1. David Lee

    Feb 10, 2015 at 2:19 am

    Whenever I use non-stick pans, I line them with tinfoil and then add enough water into the pan under the tinfoil to keep the food below 220 degrees as it cooks and that also keeps the pan cooler. Every time the water gets low, I add more.

  2. CAPERNIUS

    Feb 12, 2015 at 5:11 pm

    I refuse to use non stick cookware….of ANY kind.
    I refuse to use Aluminum as well(associated with alzheimer’s disease).

    Experience has taught me that I can get BETTER results without it…
    So I use cast iron, stainless steel, & copper pots & pans…
    a wee bit of iron in your system(coming off the cast iron) is actually good for you & the same goes for the copper…
    Now the stainless steel, I just use it because it last longer than anything else save the cast iron.