Teflon-coated cookware safe to use
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-13 17:02

An official test shows that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a synthetic chemical that may cause health and environmental problems, was not detected in Chinese non-stick cookware.

China's State Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine Wednesday announced the test results made by China's state supervision and quarantine academy.

Before the results were released, they were reviewed by an independent expert group including academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The group unanimously agreed that the results are reliable, according the administration.

The test group of the supervision and quarantine academy examined 28 kinds of non-stick cookware from 18 major brands + accounting for 90 percent of the product available in Chinese markets.

PFOA is a key ingredient used to make Teflon, a non-stick coating for frying pans. The US Environmental Protection Agency alleged that Delaware-based manufacture DuPont repeatedly failed over a 20-year period to report information about health and environment risks from PFOA.

Although DuPont denies it failed to meet reporting requirements or that Teflon-coated cookware poses any threat to human health, the report caused many worries in China, which may pose a huge threat to China's non-stick cookware business.

Close