The best seal of all likely is a gold gasket. That is what is used to seal ultra-high vacuum equipment. However, even given the now extreme price of some top wines, gold is still a bit expensive to seal a wine bottle. Teflon may also, like gold, be an overkill. However so much work has been done on this plastic, that it is nearly certain that it could properly seal a wine for up to hundreds of years. Teflon has been long used and is very safe and non toxic for contact with foods and has been so approved. In fact many of you are drinking water that comes in contact wth Teflon. Teflon tape now is often used to seal the threads in plastic cold and hot water pipes that now serve most homes. Of course there are still a few homes served by pipes of the very natural material lead, and also a pipe cement containing lead oxide often was used before Teflon tape became common. A high quality screw seal with a Teflon insert for the seal probably would be best made of stainless steel that will withstand extremely long storage under damp conditions. Aluminum is much more reactive. The cap should be strong to avoid distortion by blows that can break the seal in soft, thin metal screw caps. Also the cap must be tightened to a sufficent pressure to hold the Teflon seal very tightly against the glass. Again we are talking about the tiny portion of fine wines that can be aged for many decades. The amount of Teflon waste from these would be insignificant compared to the huge amount now used for pipe seals, non-stick pans, and such.
There is one condition under which Teflon can be harmful. Although it can withstand extremely high temperatures, it will decompose at a high enough temperature - such as if you place a Teflon coated pan on a stove burner on high and leave it there a long time. This usually causes no problems for humans. However certain birds, such as Amazon parrots, can not tolerate the decomposition products produced by overheated Teflon and rapidly die before you can get them to a vet. A bird's respiration system is greatly different from that of a human, and there are many things that some birds can not tolerate that are no problem to humans, dogs, and cats. I use some Teflon coated equipment, but not saute pans, in case I forget and leave one on a heated burner. My 22 year old Amazon Green Cheek parrot never is sick, still is playful, and has no problems.He has been drinking water from pipes sealed with Teflon tape and has been around Teflon equipment that is not used on the stove top all of his life.
I see no need to support outmoded technology. At one time, a local company used a large number of key punch operators to punch computer cards. These people were out of a job when punched cards were no longer needed. People who lose their job have to retrain to do something else. Many companies or the various governments will pay for this, as it is much better for all concerned not to have many people receiving unemployment pay at taxpayer expense. I do know a bit about forests, since my father left me some forest land in another state that has been in the family for over 100 years. It produces mainly yellow pine, which is widely used for lumber, electric poles, etc. There are also at least
6 kinds of oaks on the property - red oak, whte oak, pin oak, black oak, etc. Oaks are tolerated to a small extent, but the pine is encouraged because it has the best market value. Should a certain kind of oak come in high demand, the forest could be slowly converted to produce more of that species. In the area where the forest is, more land now is in forest than in the early last century. In the early last century much cotton was grown in the area, but other areas now are better suited for cotton. Thus much of the former land used for cotton now is planted with trees. Besides producing lumber and paper pulp for over 100 years, my forrest land is the home of many animals - wild turkeys, deer, rabbits, a wolf or two, many bird species, the same as it was 100 years ago. The cork oak forests may have to be slowly coverted to some other species of oak or other tree. At one time cork was widely used as insullation. However much of this cork is now replaced by a wide variety of other materials. Wine corks are just one of many uses of cork.
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