I believe it was this weekend that someone called into your show and asked about the dangers of Teflon. (I happened to listen to some of your past shows yesterday that I had recorded, so there's a small possibility this was from a show in June.) The last page of the Nov. Discover magazine has an article titled "20 Things You Didn't Know about Lab Accidents". Here are #11 and 12.
11: In 1938 DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett opened a dud coanister of tetrafluoroethylene gas and discovered ana amazing, nearly friction-free white powder. He he named it Teflon.12: Perhaps he should have chucked it out instead: In 2005 the EPA identified a Teflon ingredient, perfluorooctanoic acid, as a "likely carcinogen." I is now in the bloodstream of 95 percent of Americans.
Some of the others are quite interesting, if not funny. #2 indicates an experiment in 1675 with 50 buckets of urine produced a waxy by-product now known as potasium.
Cheers...
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA) (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time) Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet