Thyroid disease linked to non-stick frying pans, but experts can't make final conclusions yet

Concerns over PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and a similar chemical PFOS since the 1990s led U.S. safety chiefs to link them to cancer. Manufacturers have agreed to phase them out by 2015. They're still on sale in most stores world wide.

When they are banned in the US, will they be shipped overseas? When toxins from some types of non-stick frying pans get into body, does it really make it harder for you to get a flatter abdomen, or more important, do low-level, but not high-level exposures lead to thyroid disease in some but not in others?

What are the scientists looking for in blood samples from the USA, sent by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were tested in Europe? Is there a link between non-stick pans and thyroid issues for some but not for others? Let's take a look at the latest study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, reported in the Jan. 21, 2010 issue of the Daily Mail.

Do you cook foods in non-stick frying pans rather than in stainless steel skillets? If so, check out the Jan. 21, 2010 Daily Mail news article, "Non-stick pan chemical is linked to thyroid disease," By Jenny Hope. According to the article, there's a link between a chemical found in various non-stick cookware and even food packaging that's linked to thyroid disease. The particular chemical is called PFOA. That chemical is found all over most people's homes. It has been branded as potentially carcinogenic, according to that Daily Mail article.

Some scientists are calling the chemical, PFOA into question because research which shows that those with higher levels of PFOA in their blood have higher rates of thyroid disease.There's a problem with women because females are more susceptible to thyroid problems. According to the study done, scientists that did the study are saying that women are at double the risk.

PFOA is used in industrial and consumer goods including non- stick cookware such as Teflon-coated pans - where it becomes unstable at very high temperatures - fast-food packaging, and flame-resistant and stain-resistant coatings for carpets and fabrics. Are you still using those teflon pans? According to the study, the chemical apparently gets into your body by being swallowed or breathed in. The big problem is, how are you going to detox PFOA from your bloodstream? Researchers report that there is no way of lowering levels in the blood.

Researcher David Melzer, a professor of epidemiology and public health, told the Daily Mail media that: 'There have long been suspicions that PFOA concentrations might be linked to changes in thyroid hormone levels. According to the study, the scientist's analysis revealed that in the "ordinary" adult population there is a solid statistical link between higher concentrations of PFOA in blood and thyroid disease.'

The big problem is you can't get all scientists to agree on this issue. Other experts pointed to research of workers with consistently high levels of exposure to the chemical that has not found a link with thyroid disease. So as long as there are workers with high levels of exposure to PFOA in their blood who have normal thyroids, you can't really make any conclusions or really do anything.

Concerns over PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and a similar chemical PFOS since the 1990s led U.S. safety chiefs to link them to cancer. Manufacturers have agreed to phase them out by 2015. Are you willing to wait another five years of frying and cooking in non-stick pots and pans?

Could other environmental or dietary issues cause thyroid disease? Up to one in 50 people worldwide may have a condition affecting their thyroid gland. Your thyroid is in your neck. It controls the way your body metabolizes food by releasing hormones such as thyroxine. But the gland also controls your body's sensitivity to other hormones.

If something from the environment or from a disease causes you to experience hyperthyroidism, the gland is being overactive. You'll lose weight, feel anxious, and restless. Hyperthyroidism affects one in 50 women and one in 500 men. It's treated by cutting down the level of thyroid hormone in your body. Radio-iodine, surgery, or other drugs are used in treating an overactive thyroid. But if you knew what made your thyroid overactive in the first place, could you detox that pollutant from your body, if it were environmental?

The opposite, an under active thyroid, hypothyroidism, causes opposite symptoms, weight gain, constipation, and insomnia. It also can affect one in 50 women, but only one in 1,000 men. Usually, doctors prescribe a daily  pill of thyroxine to replace what's missing in your body's thyroid hormone.

Where was this latest study performed? Although the blood samples came from the USA, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study took place at the University of Exeter and the Peninsula Medical School, in England.

Samples from almost 4,000 adults taken between 1999 and 2006 in the USA were analyzed for chemicals including PFOA and PFOS, according to the reports in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives.

There's a problem in environmental toxins. Drugs such as an excess of Tamiflu, excreted in human urine are in waste water from sewage plants. The waste water comes back into the environment in other ways, according to the article, "Concentrations of the Active Metabolite of Tamiflu in Wastewater Samples."

There are pollutants coming at you from all directions. What the scientists found emphasized that people with the highest 25 per cent of PFOA concentrations were more than twice as likely to have thyroid disease than individuals with the lowest 50 per cent of PFOA concentrations. 

Also 16 per cent of women in the top quarter had the disease compared with just 8 in the bottom quarter in the study.Only what wasn't known was the type of thyroid problem, whether over-active or underactive.Why didn't the scientists break down the study into hypo and hyper thyroidism?

In the past, animal studies revealed that the compounds can affect the function of the thyroid hormone system. Most people don't realize that their thyroid hormone controls their heartbeat rate, body temperature and various body functions such as metabolism, reproduction, digestion and mental health. People who get tumors on their thyroid may feel depressed and not know why the growth is causing severe depression. They might think it's emotional rather than a thyroid issue.

The need is for more research relating health problems with low-level exposures to environmental chemicals like PFOA that are in the environment and in people's homes. How can scientists arrive at any solid conclusions when workers with high-level exposures to those chemicals in question aren't showing a consistency in evidence?

They're not showing increased risk of thyroid disease. Scientists are wondering why because thyroid issues would be expected to show up in the general population with that level of exposure to the chemicals in question. Scientists want to find out why low-level or high-level exposures produce different health effects or none. Or are workers protecting themselves in high-level chemical environments?

And if so, does that mean that the average person with low-level exposure isn't protecting himself because few people know what pans and pots are safest in which to cook food? Is it safe or unsafe to breathe the air from heated frying pans--if you work in a restaurant or cook at home for hours?