July 24, 2005

Teflon.

Here's a big lawsuit.

IN THE COMMENTS: Teflon or no Teflon, if you have a pet bird, keep it out of the kitchen.
Posted by Ann Althouse at 9:55 AM

3 comments:

Bruce Hayden said...

There are a couple of issues here. PFOA in the manufacture of Teflon, and Teflon itself. Even if PFOA is questionable, that won't affect us that much. DuPont can just move manufacture offshore. Plenty of places in this world that would love to have those plants.

And I don't mind in the least if the company has to clean up its mess. That is a cost of doing business, and this is one of the company's most profitable businesses, now for 50 years.

But banning Teflon itself is much more worrisome. Yes, if it actually were to be shown as likely to cause cancer in humans - that would be a very different story.

But the class action lawsuit in favor of people who have bought Teflon products is much more worrisome. It would essentially cover almost everyone in the country. And it is based on no scientific evidence. Zip. Zero. Nada.

Makes me really wish for a loser pays system. Here we have some lawyers looking at the $200 million or so profits DuPont makes a year, and are sensing a potential bonanza on their part.

Makes me embarrassed to be an attorney.

7/24/05, 12:03 PM
tarpon said...

Lawsuit before science. I saw this yesterday. The lawyers leave off the science part which proves teflon nor cookware made with it contains PFOA. Just because a substance is used in manufacture, it does not mean it is present in the final products.

This is 2005's Alar.

I hope the suit is filed under loser pays rules.

7/24/05, 12:26 PM
tarpon said...

Birds have extremely sensitive lungs that can be damaged by many things, areosols for one. The bird's lungs can be damaged by careless cooking in any type of pan. Burnt fat or butter is particulary bad.

Any good veternarian will tell you as much. Bird owners mostly know this and keep their birds away from the kitchen. Has nothing to do with the type pan used, unless you assume the users of non-stick cookwear are more careless cooks.

My friend, who onws parrots explained this to me many years ago.

7/24/05, 6:47 PM

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