Teflon Heat Kills Birds
A family with eight birds found four of the birds died while the family was preparing Thanksgiving. This occurred even when windows are open as per directions. It all began with one of the family members noticed that a bird in a birdcage, there were problems while standing. It was only after opening the rest of the windows, the rest of the birds were rescued.
Birds that were used to protect us
The microscopic studies of bird lungs confirmed inhalation of toxic gases from poisonous non-stick coating of the oven. Even in the old days birds were used by humans to detect toxic gases, the birds suffered frequent deaths. Now it's our turn to protect birds, which in the long run, we will protect people themselves. There have been cases where people have also been poisoned by PTFE (aqua Teflon) gases.
When non-stick coating surfaces are heated above 260 degrees Celsius, toxic gases are released which can kill birds within a few minutes. In most cases, many of the birds died in their bird cage immediately, and the owners had no chance to give any medical intervention. The negative environmental fallout from regular use of PTFE has not yet been thoroughly investigated and documented.
Other dangerous PTFE Based Products
It may happen that birds living in your care also. There are other PTFE-based products, which are equally harmful to the Avian. We also use PTFE baking sheets, which can be harmful to birds in a cage, if it is brought close to a heat source. There was an episode where some birds died within 15 minutes when a baking sheet was overheated because of one reason or another. There are messages circulating on the Internet to encourage people not to cook with non-stick cookware, as it is deadly to birds.
Difficult to diagnose
The signs of PTFE toxicity is not so specific, you may only notice some respiratory and other diseases. We only notice such cases where the birds are either found dead in the bird cage or gasping for breath. If exposure to these gases is very mild symptoms in birds may be a lack of coordination, wheezing, weakness, anxiety, behavior or even seizures.
The condition is diagnosed through physical examination and history by using non-stick cookware around the birdcage area. The overheated Teflon surface liberates toxic particles that affect the lungs of these birds. Post postmortem shows that the bird's lungs turned dark red, due to hemorrhage and congestion. The same conditions appear in the trachea and bronchi as well. These symptoms are not specific for PTFE toxicity alone, therefore it is difficult to identify positively PTFE poisoning. Other toxic irritant to birds in a birdcage, including ammonia, burnt cooking oil, natural gas, carbon monoxide, and tobacco smoke and aerosol sprays.
Why are birds affected first?
PTFE overheating causes problems with rats and humans also. Humans display flue-like symptoms although it is not fatal. The disease may be severe. The unique anatomy of birds, exposing them to poisons in the air. The high metabolic rate in birds agencies requires them to use oxygen more efficiently, which means they absorb toxic gases quickly. It is therefore important to ensure that the pet bird owners to place bird cage of their birds in a proper location.
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