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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