Originally Posted by
AlphaDogg
So I have a pan in my cupboard that's really grimy. Nothing will take off the grime. I remembered that OMS works really well to clean grimy chains and bike parts, so I gave it a go. I used a sponge and some mineral spirits and the grime game right off. Now my question is whether or not I can use this pan. I'll send it through the dishwasher, burn any remaining OMS residue on the surface, or whatever is needed. The pan is kind of old, so I think the PTFE coating on the surface has been worn away (which is why the grime stuck to the surface).
Can anyone with chemical knowledge of the stuff help me out?
Mineral spirits, especially odorless mineral spirits, aren't particularly toxic. They also evaporate
completely at room temperature over time. If you cleaned the pan and the
immediately cooked with it, you might ingest some of the material but if you let it sit for even a few minutes with a small residue of mineral spirits in the pan, you won't have a problem.
The toxicity of the teflon coating is over blown. If you are a bird, you might experience problems at around 200C but deterioration doesn't really happen until you get to around 260C (500F) and decomposition doesn't occur until 350C (660F). If you are cooking at those temperatures, you are doing something wrong. Even for searing meat, 500F is the very upper end.
And fuzz2050 is correct that you could eat the stuff all day long without any problem then, maybe, constipation.