According to a new meta-analysis of previous studies, Philippe Grandjean, of Harvard, and Richard Clapp, of the University of Massachusetts, concluded that DuPont Teflon, used for 50 years to make frictionless cookware, is much more dangerous than previously thought, causing cancer, birth defects and heart disease, and weakening the immune system.

Even though Teflon's harmful perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is no longer produced or used, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found it in the blood of more than 99 percent of Americans studied, because it can be passed from mother to unborn child in the womb. The researchers say that the federal government's recommended "safe" level, set in 2009, is as much as 1,000 times too high to fully protect people's health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yet to set a legal allowable limit for its presence in drinking water.

Source: EnvironmentalHealthNews.org