Was reading the cherry balmz website and it specifically mentions how the Teflon in CLP and PTFE in other greases that are not theirs are carcinogens and will cause cancer.

Has there been any proof to this? My attempts St Google all but failed me in this matter.

It seems wierd that something used in CLP since the cold war would cause Cancer as well as PTFE being used in grease for who knows how long to this date.

Seems like a claim that is hard to verify.

If thats true, Im dead. I use that shit every day.

Prop 65
In California, everything causes cancer.

Mostly the people

Death is inevitable. 

Using teflon cookware can kill pet birds in your house.

So you know its got to be healthy for humans to breath.

living gives you cancer.

Everything causes cancer. Don't worry about it.

No, BURNING teflon can kill pet birds in your house. It's not real healthy for you either. So I'd suggest not setting it on fire, or heating it to its depolymerization temperature. It starts depolymerizing at something like 500 degrees F, so this should not be too hard to avoid.

Thermal breakdown of teflon releases toxic chemicals in gaseous form. It's exceptionally toxic to birds apparently, but very bad for people too. Hydroflouric acid is one of the by products, there are others, none of which are good.

Teflon has been around since 1938.  

Exposure is so universal that effectively every human being on the planet has a little of it floating around in their body.  

DuPont was sued by people living around one of its teflon plants who claimed it was giving them cancer.  In settling the case, DuPont agreed to test the people living around the plant and monitor their health.  People with teflon levels in their blood six times higher than normal were at slightly increased risk of certain cancers, predominately kidney cancer.  The study found a more significant link between high level teflon exposure and non-cancerous thyroid problems.  See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3855507/

So someone saying Teflon WILL cause cancer is making a claim not supported by the evidence.

Is there a link between high levels of exposure to teflon and increased risk of cancer?  Yes, the evidence seems to suggest an elevated risk.

The bottom line is that there is no level of exposure to any environmental pollutant that is "safe" in any absolute sense of that word.  There are levels of pollutants that pose risks so small that we can ignore them with no overall damage to society as a whole.

It's a ridiculous comparision though.

Being around a teflon manufacturing plant leading to an increased risk of cancer does not mean that teflon causes cancer.

Just as overheating or burning Teflon releases toxic chemicals, so does manufacturing it require toxic chemicals. I would posit that exposure to even very small amounts of those toxic chemicals would be a greater risk that exposure to any quantity of the chemically inert Teflon.

Back to the original topic which is teflon in firearms cleaning products, the hazard comes from teflon used in the bore, or in high-temperature parts of the gas system, where the teflon would be subject to thermal breakdown and thus release toxic by-products like hydrogen flouride/hydrofluoric acid and perfluoroisobutene.

PTFE is only carcinogens when it burns above a certain temperature threshold and when you breathe it in.

With that said, unless you run your gun very, very hot, I don't think you got a problem. We're talking about 750+ degrees if I remember right, and that is assuming you breathe it in.

It's just like motor oil. It's mostly safe on the skin by itself until it is used after which it has carcinogens in it.

Edit: Here's a good article on it from the Cancer society: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid-pfoa.html Again you got to breathe it in after the teflon is exposed to high temperature. Unless you're putting PTFE into the barrel of the gun, then shooting it and then putting the barrel in your nostrils to breathe in the fumes, I don't think you got a problem to worry about.

Back in the 90's I worked as a contractor for DuPont and spent allot of time in thier Teflon unit. The several hour long safety training required to work in that unit was intense. Won't bore you with details but an interesting tidbit was what they referred to as the 'Teflon Flu'. Smokers were warned to keep thier cigarettes in a ziplock bag while near the unit. If the teflon got on the cigarette and was then smoked it gave all the symptoms of the flu.

The lawsuit was from a byproduct of manufacturing referenced as C8.

I don't hesitate to use it 'as directed' but probably wouldn't be using it on a full auto system.

The military is moving away from PTFE. It's not allowed for the military to use PTFE any longer. If I remember right, PTFE was used in the original Breakfree formula. When the military gone away with the PTFE they switched to another product. But the military wanted to "go green."

Also I wonder how much PTFE is in a typical gun cleaning product vs the surface of a frying pan? I'd imagine a typical bottle of gun oil would contain a small ratio of PTFE particles in it. Perhaps 10% at most? Maybe even less than that I'd bet.

If your lubrication contains PTFE, you'd apply a very small amount of it to your firearm. And once it burns off, that's it, there isn't any other PTFE on it. Not to mention, if you ever shoot full auto, the temperature variation is too great to be of a concern. If you fire full auto it might get 100s of degrees, but once you stop firing, the temperature drops by a lot quickly. With such low amounts of PTFE burnt and smoked off the gun, would it really matter? In the bolt carrier group section, there isn't enough heat back there to really be of concern. If I remember right, the bolt carrier group gets to be at maximum about 180 degrees in a army test where they shoot 1 round every second for a full magazine. That's way below the threshold to burn the PTFE.

Overall I think the amount of exposure to burning/burnt smoke particles of PTFE based products in a firearm is too low to be of any concern. If it does burn, the smoke would last for maybe a few seconds. Would inhaling this over time matter? Who knows.

A rule of thumb in life is to never breathe in smoke or fumes if you can. Try to avoid it and always use items with fumes or smoke outside in the open air. You might not get cancer, but breathing in any sort of chemical byproduct has been known to cause other lung diseases later in life. Even second hand smoking can cause the same issues of a smoker. So it makes sense to avoid fumes and smoke whenever possible.

Be cynical my friend.

Our competitors' products causes cancer? Sounds desperate to me....

How about a link to the claim cherry balmz statement?

http://www.cherrybalmz.com/history-the-cold-war--clp

The link is here: http://www.cherrybalmz.com/hidden-hazards

Reading through the site myself, I find the information rather interesting. It seems the maker of the site really put fort a good story.

There aren't any citations or anything.

Remember one thing: whenever someone makes a claim, it is on them to prove it, not you. Whenever someone says, "Well hey, just google it." Then ignore them. A forum where someone said something is not exactly a credible source but a good foundation to find a good research data. It's wise to research material, but if you are finding lacking information or just hearing one forum member talk about to another, then chances are it's just hearsay.

As it stands two facts are known about PTFE in guns:

1) You don't use a lot of it compared to a larger surface area such as a teflon coated frying pan

2) There's no concrete proof that PTFE by itself causes cancer but breathing in the fumes when it gets super hot (750+ degrees) can cause symptoms.

Those two are the only factual information right now. Since the military uses PTFE in a lot of enclosed areas, it makes sense they want to err on the side of caution whenever possible when people are exposed to dangerous/hazardous chemicals. If you can buy 100 gal drums of CLP from one vendor that doesn't have PTFE vs one that does, why not?

My understanding was that the current formulations of both mil CLP and consumer Break Free did not have Teflon/PTFE.

Commercial CLP Breakfree contains Teflon.
Says so right on the bottle..... PTFE, which is Teflon.
Unlike the old CLP the new type is not in micro size balls and isn't visible.

California is a cancer.........

Teflon was removed from BreakFree back in the early 2000's. Many years ago, if it sat for a few hours, it would separate, the teflon particulates would settle to the bottom.
They were the white solids that formed at the bottom of the bottle.

I work in the plastic injection molding field.  I've heard a lot of stories about the Teflon Flu from molders that have had it overheat in their machines filling the area with smoke.  This was in the older days before good ventilation.

It does say right on the company website that BF CLP has PTFE in it.

"LUBRICATES: Break Free CLP has superior lubricating qualities that keeps parts working smoothly. CLP’s proprietary formula contains multiple ingredients including specially treated PTFE for improved boundary film strength that reduces friction, retards wear, and stops build-up of foreign matter."

I also am very interested in this, I looked at the SDS sheet for CLP and it has a health hazard rating of 0 on it.

Teflon is used for medical implants - it's very safe under normal conditions.  You could eat it by the pound and the only hazard would be intestinal blockage if you swallowed too many large chunks at once.

If you want to worry about something, consider that priming compound is largely lead styphnate and every shot releases milligrams of lead into the air.  That's why indoor ranges need to be well ventilated, with air moving downrange to sweep the fumes away.  The lead in bullets may splatter as chunks when it hits a hard target, but that falls right out in fractions of a second; however, the lead from the primer ends up as a very fine powder that stays suspended in the air indefinitely.  Indoor ranges need to use HEPA filtration to remove the tiny particles.

Well I think I got ripped off here. I ordered a couple bottles of Cherry Balmz a few days ago. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and it sounds rather unique and I'm always a sucker for anything grease. Made the paypal payment, and then nothing. No confirmation emails, nothing. I even sent an email asking for update and nothing. So I don't know if that site is operational anymore. I'll give them 2 weeks but if I don't hear anything I'll file a report with paypal and my bank.

Update: I did some research. Probably something I should have done BEFORE I placed an order but the site looked legit.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/cherry-balmz/internet/cherry-balmz-ripped-off-internet-1326711

It appears folks are ordering from that site and never getting their order. So be warned. Their other claims about PTFE causing cancer is probably just as made up as their website.

I'll give them until Friday to respond then I'm filing a complaint with Paypal.

You might get cancer if you drink a bottle of CLP. A buddy of mine in the Marines thought it would be funny to pour some motor oil in my Mnt Dew and I don't have cancer, and it was about an inch and a half thick in the bottle, that was 16 years ago. The worst that happened was my farts smelled like motor oil for about a week. I wouldn't worry about it as cancer can even be a genetics thing. Don't think too much into this it'll just make you more paranoid.

I have not observed any abnormal growths on my firearms from its use.

Some update. Cherry Balmz finally shipped my bottles today. I thought maybe they weren't operational or something. I will test it out and see how well it works. I'll give updates if anyone is interested to hear.