Teflon flu

[darkware]

But the stuff starts to be released at relatively low temperatures, long before it actually smokes.

Where did you hear that? Everything I've seen has quoted the off-gassing to begin around 500F. That is scorching hot as far as frying goes. Even the article you quoted lists 464F. The citation seems believable. The only form of frying that routinely uses heat that high is stir frying, which should never ever be done with a teflon pan.

If you're frying something in a teflon pan, it shouldn't really get much over 350F. On my electric stove, that is around 7 (with a max of 9). A nice saute uses 4-5.

The experiment quoted in your link is talking about heating a dry pan with nothing to cook in it. That's generally bad for pans, generally bad cooking form, and just plain wrong for teflon pans.

When I was twelve, I learned how to saute and do shallow frying. The first rule is to always have some form of fat in the pan. That is, after all, what frying is: cooking in oil.

Teflon is not a replacement for oil in cooking. It's job is to make it easier to clean the pan later.

You still need oil to fry correctly. If your oil is smoking, your pan is too hot. If your teflon pan is off-gassing, then you're smoking the oil (assuming you haven't gone out of your way to find the highest heat oil possible). It's that simple.

 

[darkware]

Additionally, that initial site you listed is filled with various other forms of quackery, including the dangers of cell phones and Wi-Fi (which seems possible for people who don't understand electromagnetic radiation) and an article warning people about how mercury causes autism, despite the fact that it is based on well-known, famously shamed, and prosecuted research which was proven to be fraudulent. (See: Andrew Wakefield)

Sorry, I know you were just worried, but that site is seriously a quack health site that is based more on fear-mongering than science.