[slumdev]

The idea that PTFE doesn't break down except at very high temperatures is not true.

Breakdown begins to occur at either 200 or 260 degrees Celsius (depending on what data you're looking at). These temperatures are well within the realm of temperatures that even a home chef might encounter.

[nate_meurer]

> Breakdown begins to occur at either 200 or 260 degrees Celsius (depending on what data you're looking at).

This isn't good data. The stories of PTFE coatings breaking down at less than 260 deg C are anecdotal. The most well known one comes from someone who swears their chickens were killed by coated light bulbs in a coop.

The lowest temperature that has lead to bird deaths in a controlled laboratory setting is 280 deg C, which is about 580 deg F. [1] This is way freaking hot, and likely only to be reached by accident.

Even in the case of accidental overheating of non-stick cookware, there have been only a few verifiable cases of injury, and certainly no fatalities. Most cases of polymer fume fever have been gleened from among workers in factories, which is remarkable considering that billions of pieces of nonstick cookware have been in use every day around the world for the past seventy years.

Also note that cooking fumes from food are themselves toxic, and kill birds and lead to long term respiratory issues in humans much more easily than PTFE coatings.

1 - https://sci-hub.st/10.1289/ehp.7511197 - An Industrial Approach to Evaluation of Pyrolysis and Combustion Hazards

[slumdev]

> The lowest temperature that has lead to bird deaths in a controlled laboratory setting is 280 deg C

"Did any birds die?" is an approach to this problem that I would expect from an undeveloped nation a hundred years ago. It is both excruciatingly short-term in focus and so imprecise that the results are useless for anyone who is not himself a rat or a canary.

Your data answers the question, "To what temperature must we heat PTFE in order to kill small animals?"

It does not answer the question, "What are the long-term effects on humans of short excursions outside of normal cooking temperatures?"