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Tin, Aluminum, Chromium
As for hard-anodized aluminum, the surface has been subjected to a process that builds up its natural coating of oxide. Aluminum oxide is a very hard, nonreactive substance that forms an impenetrable coating. So the food never actually touches aluminum metal.
I'm shopping for stainless steel cookware. Some brands brag that they're made of 18/10 stainless steel, while others say they're 18/8. What's the difference?
The numbers are the percentages of chromium and nickel, respectively, in the alloy, so the 18/10 contains 2 percentage points more nickel than the 18/8. More nickel gives the steel a brighter surface and greater corrosion resistance, but the difference is very small. Both are top-quality stainless steels. If the type of steel isn't specified, it might be 18/0, a lower quality containing no nickel at all. The surfaces will be comparatively dull.
Did I say there's chromium in our frying pans? Shades of Erin Brockovich!
In 1993, Brockovich, a legal file clerk, sparked a successful $333 million lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for contaminating the drinking water of Hinkley, Calif., with hexavalent chromium. Since the 2000 movie with Julia Roberts in the title role, I have been asked several times whether stainless steel cookware is dangerous because of the chromium it contains. The answer is no. Chromium metal and hexavalent chromium are as different as a metal bedspring and a mineral spring.
Chromium is a corrosion- resistant metal, formerly used to electroplate bumpers and glitzy trim on automobiles. It's not used for that purpose anymore, because it's too valuable a metal to be squandered on automotive bling.
Hexavalent chromium, on the other hand, is one of the nonmetallic chemical forms of the element chromium, along with bivalent chromium and trivalent chromium. They are formed when chromium or chromium oxide dissolves in acids. Equating hexavalent chromium to chromium metal is like equating the eating of iron-rich foods to noshing on nails. As long as you don't dissolve an old car bumper (or a stainless steel frying pan) in sulfuric acid and drink it, there's no problem.
Robert L. Wolke (http:/
