A good pan should gladden you as you hold it, recalling all the dinners you’ve cooked, even the ones that stuck!

I love to cook and I can happily deal with the stuck-on food, so long as my frying pan produces lacey crepes and crispy dosas. And non-sticks are too good to be true; easy to clean, incredibly popular, a real time saver in the kitchen. But now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US has issued a strict warning on the use of long-chain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) commonly used in the making of Teflon coating of non-stick pans.

Maybe it’s a sign of our times, who would have expected stories about a chemical compound as complicated as perfluorooctanoic acid to strike fear in the hearts of cooks?

I knew the non-stick story was all too good to be true.

Health Hazards of the Chemical PFOA

PFOA is the chemical coating that gives your non-stick pans the slippery feel. While its use is slowly being phased out, unless you’ve recently purchased cookware that is specifically labeled “PFOA-free”, then it’s likely that the non-stick pans in your kitchen are a source of this potentially dangerous chemical.

PFOA has been linked to tumours, cancer and birth defects in animals. While there is less clear evidence of harm to humans, authorities in the US, don’t want to take chances. But these health hazards begin only when the pan overheats at 600ºF or above. At this point, the teflon coating breaks down and it decomposes releasing 6 toxic gases; including two cancer causing gases and the fumes are strong enough to cause a temporary flu like condition. These fumes won’t kill you, but can kill birds and pets, who have a more fragile respiratory system.

I knew non-sticks are too good to be true!

Cook Smart Precautions

Never preheat: 600ºF is not that hard to reach if you leave a pan on the gas for a while. So don’t preheat your non-stick utensils, ever. Preheating is only for baking.

Invest in the latest “PFOA-free”, ceramic, range (which is pretty expensive) or the switch to a regular heavy non-stick pans. The lighter the pan, the easier it reaches the sticking point of 600ºF.

Ventilate your kitchen. When cooking, turn on the exhaust fan to help clear away any fumes.

Don’t broil or sear meats. Those techniques require temperatures above what non-stick can usually handle.

Avoid chipped or damaged pans. If you have flaking pans, you could swallow a chip of Teflon, and while it might be medically OK, why would you want to? Throw them away.

Cook on medium or low heat. And you should be sorted.

The big question – should we throw away all our non-stick cookware, eat only microwaved popcorn and pizza? Some historical parallels exist. On the theory that the mercury in silver-amalgam tooth fillings causes an array of illnesses, some people have had all their fillings removed. And believing that aluminium causes Alzheimer’s disease, some people have thrown away all their aluminium pots and pans. If we also throw away our non-stick pots and pans, how are we ever going to cook food to be chewed by our mercury-free teeth?