Here's an interesting piece on the Teflon Flu. It's better known as metal fume fever and/or polymer fume fever in the medical literature. It is real .. but seems to be a problem only if you cook your frying pan instead of the food.
Teflon Flu
Published
I saw the special on Teflon fry pans on TV and immediatly disposed of all my pans. That was four days ago and I think I am feeling better than I have for a long time. Before,I had aches and not feeling well. Nothing specific just a yuky feeling. Sort of “flu like”! I had a bad habit of heating my pans too hot. Could this have been the reason for my malaise?
Is the consensus that “teflon flu” applies to all non-stick technology or teflon only?
My daughter had mysterious aches and fevers for 8 years. Drs were puzzled after batteries of tests from Luekemia to Lupus. One 28 day bout with fevers, I saw a report about the Teflon flu. I threw away all coated products and she was fever and ache free the next day. She never had a fever on the days when we ate out but when I cooked 3 meals a day, she remained sick. The key word here is STAINLESS STEEL.
Yesterday 11/26/03 I was in my home office. I had heated some food in our toaster oven. i realized a few hours later that I was getting a terrible headache. at first I paid no attention to it as I am a headache sufferer. However this headache was getting very intense. Paco, my chihuahua, began to act strange not wanting to go back into the kitchen. I felt for some reason that there must be something coming from the kitchen causing this terrible headache, however nothing was on the oven was off and then I saw that I had never turned the broiler off on the toaster oven. For several hours this toaster oven had been heating the teflon pan I had used that morning. after bosting the air purifier and opening the doors etc. I began to feel the headache going away. This was only short lived as this is now the second day and my headache will not go away. My eyes ache and my nasal passages feel as if I am getting some kind of infection. I have never attributed feelings like this to anything but the obvious “a cold or flu”
My wife saw the program that spoke of Teflon Flu. Does this sound classic, if so please respond. Feeling terrible.
I licked the gravy and the burnt remnants from a teflon deep dish oval “cooker” that was overheated (covered) for hours. I am now dizzy, malaised and feel extremely impaired. I wrecked my car backing up and have shortness of breath and loss of balance.
Everyone there was sick the next day – I pesume from the fumes? The nine-year old was first to report and sickest – enough to warrant an urgent doctors visit.
I hope this goes away. I feel duped by Dupont.
email address for below: cahoffman_@__birch.com
My daughter has had the “Stomach flue” for 10 days now, could it be the teflon flue?
I came down with the regular flu on a tuesday and wasn’t able to eat anything for 4 days, until Saturday evening. About 7 days later I was cooking a package of bacon in a Teflon pan and I bacame extremely ill that night and all day the next day. I couldn’t of had the flu, I had just gotten over it. Besides, this felt different. I not only felt nausea, but headache and stomach pain also. In my family of five no one else got it and they weren’t around when I was cooking. It had to be the Teflon flu, I couldn’t have gotten the same flu I had a week prior.
I thoughtI was was doing my family a favor when I purchased a Toastmaster Electric Pressure Cooker recently. It would allow me to cook those foods that take too much time for a working person to prepare. When I opened it, I was surprised to see it was Teflon coated. I cooked a corned beef last night and it was absolutely delicious. Today we have felt like we have come down with the flu. We do not have fever, but our bodies ache all we can do is sleep. There was a time when I would have laughed at the idea of Teflon flu, but at this point, I really believe it.
I had extreme nausea and mailaise for 48 hours after cooking bacon in teflon. I had let the bacon cook too long and it was a bit charred. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I have noticed in the past feeling sick to my stomach after frying bacon in my teflon pan. I don’t know if this is related to my intolerance to bacon, the teflon or other factors, but it sure seems like there may be a connection to me. No more teflon in my house!