From an article published in the National Library of Medicine (please see citation below).

Key Points

• At normal cooking temperatures, PTFE-coated cookware releases various gases and chemicals that present mild to severe toxicity.
• There are some reports where PFOA was detected in the gas phase released from the cooking utensils under normal cooking temperatures.
• Due to toxicity concerns, PFOA has been replaced with other chemicals such as GenX, but these new alternatives are also suspected to have similar toxicity.
• More research is necessary to better understand how toxic these chemicals are and the level of exposure consumer's may experience through normal use of PTFE-coated cookware.

The fluorinated polymer (aka plastic with fluorine) PTFE is used as an inner coating material in non-stick cookware. This unique polymer coating prevents food from sticking in the pans during the cooking process. While some companies continue to assert that PTFE is safe for use in cookware, other companies have eliminated from their products and some countries are considering bans. And while additional research about how and why some kinds of chemicals are hazardous, we never believe that we should assume that chemicals or ingredients are safe for our families or ecosystems. The burden of proving there are safer belongs to the companies that make and use those chemicals and ingredients.

In our homes, we choose cookware that are made using raw materials that tend to be safer like stainless steel and cast iron. Cookware that are Made Safe certified are also good options. Ingredient safety is a big part of our company ratings, so looking for products made by companies that are rated as "Recommended" is also a good option.

Sajid M, Ilyas M. PTFE-coated non-stick cookware and toxicity concerns: a perspective. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2017 Oct;24(30):23436-23440. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-0095-y. Epub 2017 Sep 14. PMID: 28913736.