Teflon: Slipperiness and the Domestication of Toxicity

Abstract

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), conventionally known as Teflon, has remarkable properties: it doesn’t combine with oxygen; no solvent can corrode it; it doesn’t conduct electricity; and it is among the slipperiest substances on earth. Although it is most widely known as a non-stick coating for pots and pans, one of the first applications of the polymer was for seals and gaskets of the separation process of uranium hexafluoride that was key to developing the nuclear bomb. These lesser-known military applications of Teflon are, I argue, part of the slippage from the military to the household. Employing the slipperiness of Teflon as both a quality of its materiality and a provocative concept, this paper will explore how Teflon moved from the large-scale catastrophic fallout of the Manhattan Project to the slow dispersion of everyday toxicity in the home. This essay is a part of the Roundtable called “The Housewife’s Secret Arsenal” (henceforth HSA); a collection of eight object-oriented engagements focusing on particular material instantiations of domesticated war. The title of this roundtable is deliberately tongue-in-cheek reminding readers of the many ways that militarisms can be invisible to their users yet persistent in the form of mundane household items that aid in the labor of homemaking. Juxtaposing the deliberately stereotyped “housewife” with the theater of war raises questions about the quiet migration of these objects and technologies from battlefield to kitchen, or bathroom, or garden. Gathered together as an “arsenal,” their uncanny proximity to one another becomes a key critical tool in asking how war comes to find itself at home in our lives.