Tuesday, October 04, 2005
11:30 AM — Self-Serving
In science we're often reminding people to be critical of the funding source of a bit of research. For example, take a look at this article and the accompanying videos about the dangers of non-stick cookware and birds.
Done yet?
Ok now, to summarize and elaborate, all of the following are harmful to birds: overheated non-stick (Teflon®) pans, heated butter, hot wax (candles), aerosol and non-aerosol sprays, cigarette and other smoke, other pets, ceiling fans, boiling water, hot pans... How many of those have I already subjected Peeper to? I keep her wings clipped so she doesn't ever fly high enough to hit a ceiling fan. She's run through two pans while they were still on the stove. She did that entirely voluntarily. I'm still trying to eliminate the airborne stuff from the house - environmentalism too. I'm not going to give up the Teflon, but I know that if I overheat something the VERY first thing to do is get her out of the kitchen.
I totally freaked out when this happened once. I yanked the pot off the stove, ran into the bedroom w/ her, threw open all the bedroom windows (in the middle of winter), locked her in her cage and closed the bedroom door, and then opened all the other windows in the house and turned on all the fans. She was fine, didn't notice anything other than my panic as far as I could tell. So maybe I didn't need to worry, but better safe than sorry. Bird rescue organizations will not adopt birds out to households with non-stick pans. ¶ permalink | 1 musings
Done yet?
Ok now, to summarize and elaborate, all of the following are harmful to birds: overheated non-stick (Teflon®) pans, heated butter, hot wax (candles), aerosol and non-aerosol sprays, cigarette and other smoke, other pets, ceiling fans, boiling water, hot pans... How many of those have I already subjected Peeper to? I keep her wings clipped so she doesn't ever fly high enough to hit a ceiling fan. She's run through two pans while they were still on the stove. She did that entirely voluntarily. I'm still trying to eliminate the airborne stuff from the house - environmentalism too. I'm not going to give up the Teflon, but I know that if I overheat something the VERY first thing to do is get her out of the kitchen.
I totally freaked out when this happened once. I yanked the pot off the stove, ran into the bedroom w/ her, threw open all the bedroom windows (in the middle of winter), locked her in her cage and closed the bedroom door, and then opened all the other windows in the house and turned on all the fans. She was fine, didn't notice anything other than my panic as far as I could tell. So maybe I didn't need to worry, but better safe than sorry. Bird rescue organizations will not adopt birds out to households with non-stick pans. ¶ permalink | 1 musings
