need help with teflon products

HI

soon to be macaw owner well aware of the effects cooking with teflon pans can have to birds and don't wish to think of the consequences, all teflon pans will be removed and replaced before arrival.

my question however is that there are people in my house that use straighteners/curling irons. both believed to have a teflon covering. now my belief was if the pan was to get to hot/burn the teflon was released, now these are set at a standard temperature or have settings (unlike pans that are exposed to a naked flame). what should i do in regards to this problem as telling them they simply cant do their hair just inst an option? lol i attempted to look for teflon free curling irons to no avail. do you think these would be safe to use as their shouldn't be any chance of the teflon burning??

thanks in advance

We use Teflon pans and take the bird to seperate room with a fan that replaces the air.
Could they do that? Curl their hair in a completely seperate room with a fan that replaces (not just blows) air?

To my knowledge, I don't think that hair irons heat higher than about 450 F. so can't "overheat" (Teflon is dangerous past 500 F). HOWEVER, I would be cautious to use them in a well ventilated (window) separate room.

EASY FIX : my flat iron is CERAMIC!! Nowadays CERAMIC is popular because healthier for your hair and it is very possible that the people living with you are using products with CERAMIC, not Teflon.

SpotsandSally said:

We use Teflon pans and take the bird to seperate room with a fan that replaces the air.
Could they do that? Curl their hair in a completely seperate room with a fan that replaces (not just blows) air?

Click to expand...

Fan or not fan, you are playing with fire and the life of your birds.

thank you both for your answers, echo I've text home and the highest setting on the curling wand is 210c - 410f so if it was to be Teflon it wouldn't necessarily be as bad as when you read about Teflon pans? ill check to make sure they are Teflon and see if i cant make them get some knew ones as well! lol

serge_09 said:

thank you both for your answers, echo I've text home and the highest setting on the curling wand is 210c - 410f so if it was to be Teflon it wouldn't necessarily be as bad as when you read about Teflon pans? ill check to make sure they are Teflon and see if i cant make them get some knew ones as well! lol

Click to expand...

Believe me, if they care for their hair (like most women do), they will WANT THE CERAMIC!!!

Echo said:

SpotsandSally said:

We use Teflon pans and take the bird to seperate room with a fan that replaces the air.
Could they do that? Curl their hair in a completely seperate room with a fan that replaces (not just blows) air?

Click to expand...

Fan or not fan, you are playing with fire and the life of your birds.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, we don't have $80 laying around to buy a single pan, let alone replace half of my mothers 50 pans she accumalated in past 10 years. Half of the Teflon has worn off, and I'm very careful to make sure the pan is cool when he leaves the room, and cool when he returns.

SpotsandSally said:

Echo said:

SpotsandSally said:

We use Teflon pans and take the bird to seperate room with a fan that replaces the air.
Could they do that? Curl their hair in a completely seperate room with a fan that replaces (not just blows) air?

Click to expand...

Fan or not fan, you are playing with fire and the life of your birds.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, we don't have $80 laying around to buy a single pan, let alone replace half of my mothers 50 pans she accumalated in past 10 years. Half of the Teflon has worn off, and I'm very careful to make sure the pan is cool when he leaves the room, and cool when he returns.

Click to expand...

How long does the toxin fumes stay in the air? Do you know for sure? And fumes/particles of the toxin mixes in the air so fast and goes under doors etc....
Besides dangerous for the birds (they can also be exposed to little at a time maybe, might not kill them right away but accumulate in their body to eventually make them very sick/die), it is also dangerous for us humans, especially pregnant women and their unborn child.

I'm not trying to jump at your throat. I understand throwing away and buying pans can be a financial burden. However the price of health care and pet care is much worse. Places like Job Lot, Marshall, TJ Maxx and the likes in the US offer affordable Stainless Steel pans. (I'm sure in others country, there are stores like this as well).....

SpotsandSally said:

Echo said:

SpotsandSally said:

We use Teflon pans and take the bird to seperate room with a fan that replaces the air.
Could they do that? Curl their hair in a completely seperate room with a fan that replaces (not just blows) air?

Click to expand...

Fan or not fan, you are playing with fire and the life of your birds.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, we don't have $80 laying around to buy a single pan, let alone replace half of my mothers 50 pans she accumalated in past 10 years. Half of the Teflon has worn off, and I'm very careful to make sure the pan is cool when he leaves the room, and cool when he returns.

Click to expand...

Geez, if you use that many pans to cook with, you are cooking way too much!! LOL

Come to think of it, I don't think I ever bought a single pan! Everyone I know knows to give me all their Stainless Steel, Ceramic, Cast iron "old pans" when they "upgrade" to the latest new non-stick pan!!! Sure I feel bad they are exposed to these toxins, but hey, everyone is entitled to their own choices.....and it's GREAT FOR ME! HA!

Just because a pan is nonstick doesn't mean it contains PTFE (not just Teflon.... other name brands that use PTFE include T-Fal, Silverstone, Flura, Excalibur, Supra, Xylon, Greblon, Resistal, Duracote, Autograph and Scanpan.).

Ceramic and hard anodized aluminum pans may be PTFE free and also are non-stick.



The only way to know if a product contains PTFE is to try and contact the manufacturer. If you don't know the manufacturer, might be better safe than sorry and just replace it.


Don't have $80 or so to buy a new set of non-stick, PTFE-Free pans? Or to buy a stainless steel or cast iron skillet??? That's ok! Save up the money and replace the pans when you can! Try to avoid using pans that you know could be a problem.


PTFE has been known to give off fumes lower than 400° F. Birds have been killed with pans heated up to or not much over 300° F. It doesn't matter if the birds are in a different room, or upstairs/downstairs, or across the other side of the house! Those fumes can travel! If you have air ducts/central air, it may travel even faster!

I think the problem with Teflon and the like may be overstated. I have always used nonstick cookware around my parrot and I live in a small apartment. She is now 14 years old. So either the problem from pans is extremely rare or occurs only when you burn the coating by letting the pan sit on the stove with nothing in it, or I have "safe" pans. It would be interesting to see an actual study about this issue, rather than anecdotes that seem to be a part of the (possible) mythos of parrot ownership.

I would be interested in whether or not your pans actually contain PTFE, legal_eagle.

MonicaMc said:

I would be interested in whether or not your pans actually contain PTFE, legal_eagle.

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I would be too, although it sounds like it's in most nonstick pans. Here's an interesting article by a DVM about nonstick pans that basically says you have to heat them way beyond normal cooking temperature to get them to release gasses. Interestingly, the nonstick coating is also used in other applications, such as heat lamps.

http://www.busybeaks.com/QA teflon.pdf

The original post was about HAIR TOOLS. I think we are straying.....

If a teflon coated ANYTHING becomes too hot, it can kill your bird.

Birdman666 said:

If a teflon coated ANYTHING becomes too hot, it can kill your bird.

Click to expand...

Simple and to the point!

"Half of the Teflon has worn off, and I'm very careful to make sure the pan is cool when he leaves the room, and cool when he returns."
Worn off? If I remember, that means you are eating it in your food!

In cases of replacing air, as long as the air is replaced from outside, as in a kitchen/stove ventilator hood or window fan venting to the outside. While using a fan within a given room will dissipate the concentration of PTFE and PFOAs, it does not do it with fresh air.....

Like sound engineers giving advice on parrot forums, a couple of years ago, I was invested in a style salon, nails, hair, tanning & massage & if I remember correctly, the cheaper metal curling appliances could damage hair at temps of around 300 degrees because they didn't/don't heat as evenly as the newer ceramic and tourmaline barrels that today's equipment sport...our operators/technicians/stylists are welcome to correct me on that as I was in it strictly for investment purposes.....

That 450 degree temp limit is almost 200 degrees above the 260 degrees that some Teflons have been registered to offgas at.....remember, DuPont owns the patent to the trade name Teflon, but licensed the technology to other companies for use in their own products, i.e. less expensive non-stick pans of other names.....

Here's a link from The University of Rochester Medical Center (New York) about PTFE & PFOA chemicals: How Safe is Nonstick Cookware? - Online Medical Encyclopedia - University of Rochester Medical Center

Then, you may be interested in a 2012 article from Total Health Magazine: TotalHealth Magazine - PFOA, PTFE, PFOS Non-stick Chemicals can Stick you with Thyroid, Heart, Liver and Immune System Disorders

And:

Teflon Warnings

This thread is several years old and Dr. Gibbons article is dated from 2003 and cites references from 1968, which really deal with the toxicity of aerated cooking oils coating and blistering bird's lungs.....studies and findings of more recent vintage offer much better reading than even materials as new as 10 years old, let alone 1968.....



So, at least the dangers of Teflon and its licensed associated products are going the way of the dinosaur, at least in food related appliances/utensils/containers this year (2015), but the jury is still not in on the dangers of scratched, flaking Teflon and Teflon similar surfaces.....

Just my thoughts on the subject ! ! !

Probably the best bet is to avoid all teflon products and as for the curling irons contact the manufacturer as to PTFE content as it seems sometimes it is used to bind ceramic onto the object coated - please see my post here
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/51002-green-pans-they-really.html

As to those posting that they use teflon around their birds all the time with no problem well maybe they are trolls (those who post to confuse or cause controversy on a forum) or they have just been extremely lucky so far - all it takes is a distraction or two for a pan to seriously overheat; or their birds aren't all that healthy but they don't notice or .... who knows???
Lower levels of exposure may not kill but certainly can't help any parrot or parronts health see these articles below

DuPont workers smoke Teflon-laced cigarettes in company experiments | Environmental Working Group

[Case of polymer fume fever with interstitial pneumonia caused by i... - PubMed - NCBI

Hopefully the guy in the above cited did recover completely but who knows??? See the links in the post above by Weco - interesting!

Over the 20+ years I've had birds, at times Teflon was used in the home. Birds are still alive. I don't now, but the real risk is when either the product is overheated, or new. When advising the public in general about a potential danger, there is (and should be) err on the side of caution. Too many variables, and too many people out there who may not have the best judgement, so it's just safest to say a black and white "don't".