Surely the irony of non-stick convenience is not lost on anyone anymore, writes Robert Sheppard for CBC News.

Nothing will stick to your Teflon, Gore-Tex, Scotchgard carpets, jackets, frying pans or fast-food packages but the reality, though, is that these man-made chemicals that make up these products are anything but transient. They are in fact among the most persistent polluters on the planet: They have been found in staggering doses in the tissues of polar bears and seals in the Arctic as well as in tropical birds and dolphins, and in humans on four continents.

In North America, it has been widely reported, as many as 95 per cent of all people have traces of the key ingredient in Teflon — PFOA for perfluorooctanoic acid — in their bloodstream. What’s more, this compound, which has been linked (in very high doses) to health and reproductive problems in lab animals, can take decades or longer to be expelled from the body.

Read the full piece here.