Nonstick cooking pans not the source of couple’s cancers

I recently was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and my wife is now getting treatment for breast cancer. Would cooking on a nonstick skillet have caused the cancers? My wife was using one for quite some time, but not anymore. — B.R.

When someone is diagnosed with any serious disease, but especially with cancer, it is a human trait to think back on possible causes. We want to have as much control over our fate as possible. However, most cases of cancer occur without a specific risk (smoking cigarettes is the biggest exception to this). Cancer happens, among other reasons, when there is an error in replicating DNA, when we are hit by natural radiation or when something in our environment damages our DNA. There certainly are behaviors we can do to reduce cancer risk, but there is no way to entirely prevent cancer from occurring.

In the case of nonstick cookware, there is no increased risk. Workers who make nonstick coatings for pans or clothing are potentially at risk due to a chemical used in manufacturing called PFOA, but there is none of this (probably) carcinogenic chemical in the final product. Overheating a nonstick-coated pan can cause irritating, but not cancer-causing, chemical fumes.

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