10 Toxic Kitchen Items to Declutter — and the Safer Swaps to Use Instead
Caraway founder Jordan Nathan tells Louisa Nicola how one night with an overheated Teflon pan sent him to poison control — and turned into a company built around non-toxic homes. The conversation maps where PFAS and plastic actually hide in a kitchen, from cookware and cutting boards to coffee makers and food storage, and lays out an affordable, step-by-step swap list.
Overview
The episode opens with the story that started everything: a Teflon pan left on a burner for 45 minutes, an apartment full of fumes, and a call to poison control. From there Jordan Nathan walks through his years selling conventional kitchenware, what he saw inside overseas factories, and how discovering PFAS reframed the whole category for him. He explains the vocabulary clearly — PFAS as a family of roughly 14,000 to 15,000 'forever chemicals' built on fluorine and carbon, PFOA as the version phased out in 2015, PTFE as what sits in traditional non-stick today.
Louisa Nicola brings in the research angle, including findings on microplastics turning up in human brain tissue at higher concentrations than in liver or kidney. Together they trace plastic well beyond the pan: cutting boards that shed shavings under a knife, black nylon utensils dipped into boiling water, takeout containers, can linings, dishwasher components.
Nathan also covers what makes ceramic non-stick different, why third-party testing matters, and how contamination can happen at the factory when Teflon and ceramic share a spray line. The practical centrepiece is a kitchen audit on a modest budget: cookware, food storage, cutting boards, utensils, a coffee setup without heated plastic, water filtration and air. The tone throughout is progress over perfection — start with what you touch most and work outward.
Key quotes
5I remember going to sleep that night and turning over to my wife in bed and saying, 'Are we going to wake up in the morning?'
PFAS as a category, they're also known as forever chemicals. The reason they're named that is once they're made, they can't actually be broken down.
It costs the same to make ceramic as it does Teflon.
The average consumer ingests about one credit card's worth of plastic per week.
You look around your house and plastic is just hiding in plain sight.
Key ideas
9One pan, one night, one company
A Teflon pan left on a lit burner for 45 minutes filled an apartment with fumes and led to a poison control call. That single evening reframed a career spent selling conventional cookware and became the origin story for a non-toxic kitchen brand.
What happens inside the factory
Years spent at overseas manufacturers surfaced processes most consumers never see, including hard anodization — dipping aluminium in sulfuric acid to harden it against scratches and dents. Seeing the production side made the material question impossible to ignore.
PFAS, PFOA and PTFE untangled
PFAS are a family of roughly 14,000 to 15,000 compounds sharing fluorine-carbon bonds, first introduced around the Manhattan Project era and commercialised decades later. PFOA was banned in 2015 after studies linked it to negative health outcomes; PTFE, a close relative, is what sits in traditional non-stick today.
Durability is exactly the problem
The property that made these coatings commercially attractive — they last almost indefinitely — is the same property that makes them persistent in water, soil and air. Once made, they don't break down, so exposure keeps compounding through everyday products.
Why the industry hasn't moved
Ceramic costs roughly the same to produce as Teflon, so price isn't the barrier. Legacy brands built entire supply chains around one material and have little internal pressure to change, even as several US states begin restricting PFAS in cookware.
Not all ceramic is equal
Quality varies enormously, which is why third-party testing exists — screening for hundreds of PFAS types, heavy metals and total organic fluorine. Contamination can also occur at the source when Teflon and ceramic coatings share the same spray line, so separated production lines matter.
Microplastics reach further than expected
Louisa Nicola cites a 2025 Nature Medicine paper finding microplastics in human brain tissue at higher concentrations than in liver or kidney, with brain concentrations rising markedly between 2016 and 2024. Older, scratched pans were also shown to release substantially more particles than new ones.
Heat, scratches and friction release particles
Coatings and plastics break down faster when heated, scratched or scraped — a black nylon utensil in boiling water, a knife on a plastic board, hot food poured into plastic storage. Kitchens combine heat, abrasion and food, which is exactly the condition where leaching becomes likely.
Air and water are the overlooked half
Gas cooking releases combustion by-products into the room, and unfiltered water carries its own load into an otherwise safe pot. Running the hood, adding air purification, and filtering water close the loop that better cookware alone can't.
Practical takeaways
7- 1
Start with what you touch daily 20:00
Rather than replacing an entire kitchen at once, begin with the items in constant contact with hot food: cookware, food storage, cutting boards and utensils. The progression is meant to be gradual and budget-aware.
- 2
Swap plastic boards and utensils for wood 31:00
A knife on a plastic board sheds shavings into food, and nylon utensils soften in boiling water. Wood is a natural alternative for both, provided it's cleaned properly.
- 3
Clean wooden boards with lemon and salt 40:10
Lemon juice plus kosher salt, scrubbed with the lemon half, is described as the best routine for wooden boards, followed by oil to condition the wood so it stays hydrated and doesn't crack. Skip the dishwasher — it will crack them.
- 4
Rethink the coffee maker 47:00
A standard drip machine runs hot water through heated plastic, several times a day for many people. A French press or pour-over is offered as a straightforward alternative for one of the most frequently used countertop items.
- 5
Check the filter, not just the pitcher 48:00
If an under-sink system isn't practical, a classic pitcher works — but choose glass and confirm the filter housing itself isn't plastic, since many are. Filtered water matters as much as the pot it goes into.
- 6
Five to seven products get you most of the way 49:00
The full audit — cookware, storage, boards, utensils, coffee setup, water filtration, air purification — is described as achievable at a range of price points. Glass storage and wooden utensils exist at the affordable end.
- 7
Favour glass and metal over plastic and silicone 51:30
For children's bottles, dinnerware and food-prep devices in particular, the general direction is away from plastic and silicone and toward glass and metals. It's framed as simple in principle, if still limited in options.
Topics & chapters
15The night that started a company
An overheated Teflon pan, an apartment full of fumes and a call to poison control. The story that reframed everything.
Selling the very products in question
Launching over 200 kitchen products in an earlier role, working across cookware, bakeware, storage and air purifiers — while the materials never quite sat right.
Inside overseas manufacturing
Dark factory rooms, hard anodization and aluminium dipped in sulfuric acid. A first look at the side of the industry consumers don't see.
Forever chemicals, defined
PFAS as a category, its origins in the 1930s and 40s, the 14,000 to 15,000 variants, and why fluorine and carbon are the common thread.
PFOA out, PTFE in
How the chemical banned in 2015 was replaced by a close relative that is still a forever chemical, and why non-stick was a genuine innovation in its day.
Three definitions of toxic
Human health, animals and the environment — and how forever chemicals ended up pervasive in water, soil and air.
Why the category resists change
Ceramic costs the same to produce, consumers and retailers want alternatives, yet legacy supply chains and lobbying keep the status quo in place. Several US states have begun restricting PFAS in cookware.
Ceramic non-stick and third-party testing
The sol-gel process behind ceramic coatings, and testing for hundreds of PFAS types, heavy metals and total organic fluorine.
Contamination at the source
Shared spray lines can carry coatings across products, which is why separating Teflon and ceramic production matters.
Microplastics in human tissue
Findings on microplastics in brain tissue, rising concentrations over time, and what scratched pans release compared with new ones.
Plastic hiding in plain sight
Cutting boards, black nylon utensils, food storage, soap dispensers, textiles and takeout containers. Heat and abrasion are the trigger conditions.
Wood care, cast iron and dishwashers
Lemon and salt for boards, oil to condition them, why cast iron is safe but heavy, and what a dishwasher does to coatings and joints.
Gas, induction and kitchen air
Combustion by-products from gas cooking, the case for hoods and air purification, and why induction remains underused in the US.
The full kitchen audit on a budget
Where to start, the coffee maker as an overlooked risk, water filtration, air, and how five to seven products cover most of it.
Kids' products and one closing lesson
The gap in safer kitchenware for children, and the parting thought: toxins are hidden in plain sight, and progress beats perfection.