Editor's blog by Jane Oliphant HousewaresLive.net's editor on housewares and the housewares industry

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Accusations will stick to non-stick

26/01/2010 10:53:21
Here we go again, I thought, when I read the recent national press reports on a possible link between non-stick cookware and people with thyroid problems.

The researchers at Exeter University were looking into health hazards associated with PFOA, a chemical used, amongst other things, in the manufacturing process for Teflon and other non-stick coatings. From their study of 4,000 individuals they found "a solid statistical link between higher concentrations of PFOA in blood and thyroid disease".

The industry's first reaction to such news, of course, must be horror at the possibility that non-stick kitchenware has caused people to fall ill in this way. In no way to downplay that though, as an industry that has benefited so much from the invention and development of non-stick we also need to consider the repercussions for ourselves of such findings - and they're not good.

The cards are stacking up against PFOA, and therefore against non-stick as we know it. PFOA has already been deemed likely to cause cancer, and there are also suggested links with birth defects and infertility. Now, we can add thyroid disease to the list.

The words to underline here, of course, are "likely to" and "suggested". In all cases, the jury's still out. Teflon manufacturer DuPont categorically denies that PFOA is carcinogenic and says that, anyway, PFOA is only used to make Teflon, and is not present in a Teflon-coated product. The company settled out of court in a case involving PFOA and birth defects but stated that PFOA was not the cause. And the Exeter University researchers stress that more research is needed into the possible thyroid disease connection.

As far as non-stick cookware, bakeware et al are concerned, though, that hardly matters. The fact is that increasing numbers of consumers will now come to believe it's as bad for them as, say, cigarettes. Or, nearer to home, aluminium cookware (and the decades-old suggestion that aluminium cookware causes Alzheimer's disease hasn't been proved either).

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