Teflon (pronounced tef-lon)
(1) The trademark for a fluorocarbon polymer with
slippery, non-sticking properties; the (chemically correct) synonym is polytetrafluoroethylene.
(2) In casual use, facetiously to denote an ability to
evade blame, applied usually to certain politicians, those characterized by
imperviousness to criticism, often as “teflon president etc”.
1945: The proprietary name registered in the US by the du
Pont corporation, from the chemical name (poly)te(tra)fl(uoroethylene) + the –on.
Teflon was a serendipitous discovery which was delivered
by research on refrigeration gases being undertaken by the Du Pont Company in
1938. Some of the experiments being performed
involved an analysis of the behavior of various compounds of Freon in cylinders
and, observations indicated that while the gas appeared to disappear from the
cylinders, weight measurements suggested it remained present and, upon inspection, what was found in the cylinders
was a white, waxy substance of no use in the process of refrigeration. The substance did however have remarkable properties,
being friction-free (described as being like rubbing wet ice against wet ice)
and impervious both almost all solvents and temperature variations between
-273–250o c (-169–121o f). Chemically the
substance was a form of polytetrafluoroethylene, thankfully shortened to "Teflon" ((poly)te(tra)fl(uoroethylene)). The
significance of Teflon wasn’t initially understood and Du Pont’s major product
release that year was anyway nylon, finally available as a commercial substance
after thirteen years of development.
Teflon did however soon have an impact in one of the century’s most significant scientific and engineering projects, those attached to the Manhattan Project developing the atom bomb finding it the only coating which worked as seals for the canisters housing the most volatile elements. However, because of the secrecy which enveloped the Manhattan Project, some aspects of which would not for many decades be declassified, Teflon didn’t enter the public consciousness until the late 1950s, the timing ensuring it came to be associated with the nascent space programme rather than the A-bomb, a perception the military-industrial complex did little to discourage. Because of the state of the analytical tools then available, it had taken a long time fully to understand the stuff and it transpired the slipperiness came from a unique molecular structure, the core of carbon atoms being surrounded by fluorine atoms, creating a bond so strong that any other interaction was repelled, the chemical mix also accounting for the high degree of invulnerability to solvents and extremes in temperature.
The first extensive use was in electronics industry, first
as insulation and corrosion protection for the copper wires and cables which
carried the data for telephony and later computer networks but, as an example
of the novel products it enabled, shatter-proof, Teflon-coated light bulbs went
on sale but most far-reaching,
revolutionary actually, was that it was Teflon which was used to hold the new
and tiny semiconductor chips. All those
uses played a part in transforming the world but it was the simultaneous (and
well-publicized) use in the Apollo Moon programme and the commercial release of
the Teflon fry-pans which so cemented the association in public consciousness. For some years, mystery shrouded how Du Pont
managed to get the Teflon to stick to the aluminum or stainless steel with
which fry-pans are made but, after the patents expired, it was revealed the classic
trick was to sandblast the metal surfaces which left tiny indentations with
irregular edges which worked like the clasps jewelers use to secure
stones. Once these tiny impressions were
filled with Teflon, the final layer had something to which to adhere; Teflon
attracting itself and repelling all else. That was an wholly mechanical process but chemical processes were also developed to induce attachment to
metal.
While some half a billion Teflon fry-pans were being
sold, the slippery substance went on extensively to be used in architecture where
its qualities of flame resistance and translucence were much appreciated and it
proved uniquely suited to solving a problem which had for decades plagued engineers, the need for an insulator to prevent the corrosion endemic between
the steel framework and copper skin of the Statue of Liberty. Living structures also benefited, Teflon of
great utility in the medical device industry because of its compatibility with
living tissue, proving an ideal substance with which to construct artificial
veins and arteries, heart patches and replacement ligaments although most inventive was
probably the Teflon powder injections used to restore the function of vocal-cords. Early in the twenty-first century, concerns
were raised after the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used in the
production of Teflon, was found to be potentially carcinogenic. The research didn’t produce direct evidence
that it's harmful to humans but it was anyway replaced with a substitute, the
wonderfully named GenX but this too has attracted concerns.
The word Teflon is used also to refer to that small class of politicians to whom no blame, however well-deserved, seems to attach; whatever mud is slung, none of it ever sticks. It seems first to have been used by Pat Schroeder (b 1940; Democrat Representative for Colorado in the House 1973-1997) who in a speech on the floor of the House in 1983 denouncing President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; US president 1981-1989) said “He has been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency: He sees to it that nothing sticks to him.” Schroeder later said that the expression came to her while frying eggs in a Teflon fry-pan. In a display of feminist bi-partisanship, she would in a later interview with CNN note that President Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) was very “Teflonish” and the phrase has come to be used to describe the political phenomenon of the willingness in voters to excuse in some the shortcomings they wouldn’t accept in most. The linguistic adaptation didn’t please Du Pont which greatly valued their trademark, issuing a press release insisting that when used in print, the media should always put the trademark symbol next to the word and that ”It is not, alas, a verb or an adjective, not even when applied to the President of the United States!” Their demands were ignored and English proceeds along its inventive ways. There is nothing to suggest Teflon sales ever suffered by association.
Lindsay Lohan in a yacht's galley, cooking with non-stick frypan, Cannes, May 2017.
Teflon
is produced from a mix of certain chemicals which are part of a large family of
substances called perfluoroalkyl & polyfluoroakyl (PFAS) and research has
linked human exposure to a number of conditions including some cancers,
reproductive issues, and elevated cholesterol levels. Given that, on the basis of the experience of
litigation and legislative response to other once common materials found to be
at least potentially dangerous, it might be expected an intensive research
effort has at least quantified the extent of the problem. However, it transpired it’s effectively
impossible to measure the risks of the use of PFAS in non-stick, simply because
for decades the chemicals have been so ubiquitous in domestic environments
because of their role providing water & stain-resistance in everything from
raincoats, carpets and car upholstery.
That means PFAS chemicals have long since become part of the environment,
detected everywhere from the seabed to mountain tops. For the human and animal population, the
presence in the water supply is of significance and in the US, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in 2020 published guidelines for the acceptable level
of certain PFAS in drinking water, a document which attracted great interest
because it appears about the same time as a study which indicated a correlation
between exposure and a disturbing “millions
of deaths”. Among the general
population, it’s the cookware which came quickly to attract the most concern,
not because there’s any evidence to suggest the stuff is a more productive
vector of transfer than carpet, curtains or any other source but because of the
intimacy of contact; it’s from those non-stick frypans we eat. It’s also in dental floss but the psychological
threshold of swallowing is real.
Lindsay Lohan using non-stick frypan. Note the metal fork; Ms Lohan is a risk-taker.
Not all PFAS are identical in the critical areas assessed although they all share the characteristic of being stable, something which has seen then dubbed the “forever chemicals”, something potentially useful for science although it’s the implication that once released, the stuff will persist in the environment for millions of years which disturbs. Some have been identified as especially dangerous and two (PFOS & PFOA) have already been phased out of industrial use, notably because of a risk posed to the human immune system and encouragingly, testing revealed that after FOS use ceased in 2000, levels in human blood declined significantly. Those who ensure they use only soft kitchen utensils when using the non-stick products shouldn’t be too assured because injecting a big chunk of the stuff historically hasn’t been the issue; it’s the micro-sized bits entering the body and while manufacturers claim any coating swallowed is inert, the concerns remain. In the absence of relevant data, there are nuanced positions on non-stick pans. The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) continues to permit the use in cookware while the EPA maintains exposure can lead to “adverse health effects” and in 2022 proposed a labeling protocol which would require certain PFAS to be listed as “hazardous substances”. Another branch of the administration, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) maintains the health effects of low exposure remain “uncertain.”
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