Teflon coating study raises questions about microplastics in cooking

A fact: Your non-stick cookware wears thin over time.

A question: How does this affect your health?

New research*: Scientists  have now been able to measure how millions of tiny plastic particles potentially come off during cooking and in the wash as non-stick pots and pans gradually lose their coating.

Just one surface crack on a Teflon-coated pan can release about 9,100 plastic particles, report researchers.

And at a micro scale, their Raman imaging and an algorithm model have identified the release of 2.3 million microplastics and nanoplastics from broken coating.

The non-stick coating material Teflon is generally a family member of PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Given the fact PFAS is a big concern, these Teflon microparticles in our food might be a health concern, [which] needs investigating because we don't know much about these emerging contaminants.

Epidemiological studies have revealed associations between exposure to specific PFAS and a variety of health effects, including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes, and cancer. Concordance with experimental animal data exists for many of these effects (1). 

Research involving humans suggests that high levels of certain PFAS may lead to the following (2):

Increased cholesterol levels 

The new study* developed a molecular spectrum approach to directly visualize and identify the Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics, which are more difficult to monitor than other plastics. 

 This new study* highlights the need to gain insights into the threat of Teflon plastic debris during daily cooking. It gives us a strong warning that we must be careful about selecting and using cooking utensils to avoid food contamination. 

*  Yunlong Luo et al, Raman imaging for the identification of Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics released from non-stick cookware, Science of The Total Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158293

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7906952/

2. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/index.html