Latest news with #Jarnot
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Are States Gearing Up to Ban Nonstick Cookware?
Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images If frying eggs or bacon is a regular part of your morning ritual, take note. Soon, your ability to use nonstick cookware may come down to where you live. New York state lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would prohibit 'the manufacture, sale, and use' of cookware containing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the primary substance used to create a nonstick surface. Though the chemical compound, commonly known by the brand name Teflon, is approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, New York has now joined a growing list of states that are proposing to ban—or in some cases, have already banned—nonstick cookware in their territories. Find answers about nonstick pans Is New York banning nonstick cookware? Are nonstick pans safe? What happens when PFAS accumulate in the body? Should consumers throw out nonstick pans? What other states have banned nonstick pans? In January of this year, two New York State senators introduced Senate Bill S1767, which if passed, 'prohibits the manufacture, sale, and use of cookware containing polytetrafluoroethylene.' In the bill's justification, the sponsors write that the chemicals used in nonstick pans are 'within the family of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which are known to have severe health effects such as harm to reproductive and bodily functions, developmental effects in youth, increased cancer risk and increased risk for high cholesterol and obesity.' It acknowledges that additional research is needed to determine the full scope of risk, but 'we should not leave people vulnerable to the potential negative health effects,' it concludes. The bill is currently in Senate committee, meaning it hasn't been brought to the floor for voting by the whole legislative body. Once on the floor, it needs to be approved by both the New York State Senate and Assembly, then signed into law by the governor. I Tried It I Tried It: Our Place's Cast Iron Always Pan Is The Real Deal Your favorite pan now comes in a sturdier version There is little debate about the safety risk of nonstick pans that do not use Teflon coating, for example ceramic or cast-iron pans. However, those that do use PTFE have raised concerns in recent years. 'PTFE belongs to a subgroup of what is known as PFAS,' explains Bruce Jarnot, PhD, global materials compliance expert, toxicologist, and product compliance advisor at Assent. PFAS are often colloquially called 'forever chemicals,' because they don't degrade over time, and the human body cannot metabolize them. In some instances, this can come in handy. PFAS are used to insulate leads in a pacemaker or used in hip joint replacements since they are inert. 'In these instances, it's fine, it's inert,' Jarnot says. 'But there are other considerations to take into account when considering potential laws like New York State Senate Bill 1767.' The first, he says, is the environmental waste and pollution that manufacturers of products containing PFAS make. 'We all have the monomers—the building blocks of polymers like Teflon—inside us from the manufacturing phase,' Jarnot says, adding that the waste ends up in water and soil, which eventually makes its way to the humans. 'So there's a strong argument against PFAS in general. Because they stay put in the body, and they can accumulate over time when they're in our environment.' In cookware specifically, that potential risk increases because the products are used with high heats. 'That's probably the highest heat environment that a material like Teflon is exposed to. So when you have a pacemaker implanted, it's at body temperature. If you're searing fish or steak in a fry pan, it's being exposed to much higher heat,' he says. Chemical reactions occur faster in hot environments, and, 'You could have decomposition of the polymer giving rise to some really nasty airborne PFAS. And there is probably some internalization of these decomposing products at high temperature.' According to the the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to PFAS could be harmful to human health. 'Scientists at EPA, in other federal agencies, and in academia and industry are continuing to conduct and review the growing body of research about PFAS. However, health effects associated with exposure to PFAS are difficult to specify for many reasons,' the agency says. For that reason, more research is required to determine the exact risks. As Jarnot explains, toxicologists often say that it's the dose that makes the poison. 'So here you have something that's not metabolizing and that is accumulating in your body, creating aggregate exposure. In that case, every bit you add to your exposure cup counts.' Even in states where nonstick pans are legal, some consumers may consider discarding theirs because of potential risk. 'As a toxicologist, I still use Teflon pans,' Jarnot admits. 'But you should never heat them without something in it, and should avoid very high heat.' That said, eliminating nonstick pans could be an easy way to minimize exposure to PFAS. 'You're getting exposure in almost all drinks—water, wine, beer, soda—because it's in the water these drinks are made from. But you need water, you need food. So one of the places you could easily omit exposure is in cookware,' Jarnot adds. Multiple states have passed or are considering legislation about polytetrafluoroethylene in their territories. California, for example, passed a law that states cookware with intentionally added PFAS must be disclosed on product labels; however, it hasn't passed a full ban. Others, like Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island have passed laws that go into effect over the next few years and ban products with intentionally added PFAS. Minnesota passed a law banning PFAS in a number of consumer goods, including cookware, which went into effect in January of this year. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest More Great Stories From AD Not a subscriber? Join AD for print and digital access now. This Lower East Side Loft Is a Sexy Riff on '90s Basements How a Financial Influencer Upgraded Her Brooklyn Apartment on a Budget 13 Best Platform Beds of 2025 We Use In Our Own Bedrooms
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Preservationists alarmed by demolition work at old Bell Aerospace site
TOWN OF WHEATFIELD — The presence of a large piece of construction equipment on the former Bell Aerospace property raised concern among local preservationists on Wednesday. A representative from the company that manages the Niagara Falls Boulevard site said planned demolition work involves one building town officials ordered demolished due to its dilapidated condition. 'It was the Town of Wheatfield that put us on notice that the building had been condemned and we needed to take immediate action to take the building down,' said Michele Kiernan, vice president and asset development manager for IRG Realty Advisors, a subsidiary of the property's owners. 'The main facility and the main manufacturing plant is all still there. This is a piece of the property. It is not the entire thing.' On its Facebook page on Wednesday, the Western New York non-profit group Preservation Buffalo Niagara posted a 'demolition alert' with a picture of an excavator located near one of the buildings on the former Bell Aerospace property. By Wednesday evening, the post garnered 244 comments, offering a mix between those who expressed support for protecting the historic integrity of the site and others who argued time had come for it to be demolished to make way for new development. Emily Jarnot, preservation planner and Niagara Falls liaison for Preservation Buffalo Niagara, said she and other representatives from her group spent several hours on Wednesday contacting local and state officials in an effort to determine what exactly was being demolished and if there was any chance to delay the project to come up with an alternative to demolition. With limited preservation codes in place and no historic preservation commission in the town, Jarnot said there were limited legal options available. 'We were never even able to propose a local landmark,' Jarnot said. 'Because it's there in the Town of Wheatfield, there's just no way.' Jarnot believes the entire property warrants preservation status as it served for decades as the home of Bell Aerospace, a company that built U.S. fighter aircraft during World War II and developed the Bell 47 helicopter and the Bell X-1, which was the first airplane to break the sound barrier. She noted that the site also includes space that once served as the main office for industrialist and Bell Aircraft Corp. founder Lawrence 'Larry' Bell. 'It is a huge visual landmark in the area,' she said. 'What gets me is the amount of stories that have been pouring out about the building on Facebook all day. The outcry of stories included someone who posted a picture of President Harry Truman at that plant. This company built the first jet to break the sound barrier. It helped build U.S. aircraft in World War II. Everybody's grandpa and grandma worked there.' 'People are just coming in with how it tied into their family and generations and what it meant to the war effort and what it meant to aerospace and aviation and the advancements that happened there,' she added. Kiernan said pending demolition involves a two-story building covering roughly 300,000 square feet that is attached to a main building. The demolition work is being supported by a grant through New York's Restore New York program. Administered by the Empire State Development Corp., the program offers grants to support municipalities' efforts to demolish, rehabilitate and restore blighted structures and transform them into vibrant residential, commercial and mixed-use developments. The application for $1.5 million in state grant funding, which is tied to a larger $3.2 million redevelopment project on the property, received support from both the town and the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency. The Niagara Gazette previously reported in a story about a planned public hearing for the project described the building covered in the grant application as being roadside at 2221 Niagara Falls Blvd. in front of other buildings making up the property currently known as Wheatfield Business Park. The building included in the application was described as being vacant since 1996 and having previously housed engineer work when the site operated as part of Bell Aircraft. Kiernan said the town and county approached the property's owners about assisting in the application for grant funding to pursue the demolition and redevelopment. 'This was something the town and the county were excited about because it would improve the visibility of the existing property,' Kiernan said. 'We have a lot of vacancy in the existing building,' she added. 'There are no immediate plans to build anything new. We do hope it improves the appearance of the main building and gives us an opportunity to create more access points at truck docks so that we can continue to lease up the main building.' While preservationists had requested access to the building to take pictures before any demolition work started, Kiernan said that was not possible due to the condemnation order from the town. She described the structure as 'uninhabitable' and as a building that has 'never been pointed out as anything of particular interest.' 'It's been condemned and it's unsafe to enter,' she said. Jarnot said it's unfortunate any of the buildings on a site with such a rich history fell into such disrepair. She argued that, with the proper foresight and planning, the property owners, the town, the county and the state could have taken a different path, one involving documentation of historic structures to allow for the application of restoration grants as part of a larger redevelopment project. She said the present course stands as a 'sharp contrast' to the opinion of many area residents who believe the site warrants preservation, not demolition. 'A building can get condemned for simply having the water shut off or the utilities shut off,' she said. 'A lot of times bringing it back from condemned status involves getting the utilities turned back on and getting the right funding to make it work.'
