Simple Steps for Detoxing Your Kitchen: Creating a Healthier Cooking Environment
January 7, 2011 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis 
Eco-friendly kitchen. Photo courtesy of southernliving.com.
Everyone takes pride in having a spotless modern kitchen, but sometimes that new cookware and all those harsh chemical cleaners can make you as sick as that bacteria that your trying to avoid.
While a kitchen can hide a lot of dangerous chemicals, there are many simple and relatively inexpensive things that everyone can do to minimize their risk of exposure and health problems.
Solutions For Detoxing Your Kitchen
Cookware
Non-stick teflon-coated cookware contain perfluorochemicals (PFCs) which make them resistant to oil, stains, grease, and water, but they also pose a health hazard if scraped off and eaten.
The Minnesota Department of Health found that in laboratory animal, high concentrations of PFCs caused damage to the liver and other organs. Developmental problems also have been seen in the offspring of rats and mice that were exposed to PFCs while pregnant. Safer non-stick alternatives to teflon cookware are stainless-steel and cast-iron.