Pyrex Bakeware

The answer is complex, involving reports of broken glass, and refutations calling "exploding" Pyrex ® simply an urban legend.

Here's the story: After hearing numerous complaints from scary Pyrex ® glassware that "exploded" in use in 2008, Snopes.com had a research Chicago TV investigative team the question whether Pyrex ® products have been (under the terms of stats. org) "weapons of destruction of glass." The resulting report television left the strong impression that the Pyrex ® glassware is dangerous, and the matter much attention. Stats.org called the story ", the second hottest urban legend on Snopes.com."

While the original report Snopes.com does contain some errors (corrected later), but the fact remains that hundreds of users said their Pyrex ® suddenly broke up, in some cases shooting on sharp glass shards that have caused injuries. These events are not real explosions, which are caused by pressure from within (as happens when a bomb explodes or a balloon). However, they were always afraid, dangerous occurrences. These events tend to occur when a glass dish has been moved from the oven and placed on a counter (in particular a cold, wet one), but there was at least one report of breakage while the dish was still in oven.

Pyrex ® glass has been put on the market since 1915, and complaints about the broken glass are relatively new. So what happened? Originally, Pyrex ® has been made by Corning borosilicate glass. Later, Corning has started making some Pyrex ® glass toughened soda lime adequately before selling the name and technology to world cuisine. Since the 1980s, the Pyrex glassware produced in the United States was made with soda lime. But the transition to the soda lime itself was not the cause of the problem, we have learned.

In seeking the answer to "Is Pyrex ® glassware sure?" ShelfLifeAdvice.com contacted Dr. Sheldon Mostovoy, a metallurgist, Illinois Institute of Technology professor and one of the scientists who tested the "new" (lime soda) Pyrex ®. Here's what he said, "borosilicate Pyrex ® is much more heat resistant. The new Pyrex ® has not been sufficiently soaked. Tempering process is similar to automotive glass processing manages to avoid shatter sharp. "Mostovoy In experiments, he said:" The new Pyrex ® broken into sharp fragments that have been propelled several feet. "Hardening properly is extremely important because 1, it) reduced the chance of sudden failure due to heat stress (rapid change in temperature) or mechanical stress (such as dropping the dishes).

Here is what Mostovoy concluded: "I believe that unless the issue of hardening of glass is fixed, there will be more people injured, even in cases where clients of the warnings of the company. "Mostovoy recommends that World Kitchen, is back in borosilicate glass or improve the process of tempering on the soda lime glass.

You can play scientist and test your drink yourself to see if it has been well soaked. Dr. Mostovoy said it's easy. "I use a sheet of polarizing material, but often just polarized sunglasses are sufficient. Take a flat Pyrex ®, hold the light, and watch it with the polarization plastic. If there are many colors, the dish was probably well-tempered, so just show a little color, it is likely bad tempered. "

Does this mean Pyrex ® glass soda lime is dangerous? World Cuisine denies this and has issued a statement along the About page of the safety record of the product on the site Pyrex ®. This statement does not address the concerns of scientists about tempering inadequate and does not indicate that the changes have been made in the manufacture of its products to make them more resistant to heat and less likely to "explode".

Warnings on how not to treat Pyrex ® are delivered with the Pro.