It’s kinda hilariously obvious. Compounds have different properties than their elements. Fluoride ion are safe enough to use in toothpaste, and protect teeth in fact. CFCs replaced ammonia as a refrigerant, because it is much much safer and inert in the absence of high energy photons. We still use HCFCs, and the F in there is for fluorine-carbon bonds.
The health effects of Teflon decay (only by overheating, really) are not caused by fluorine. They are caused by the decay products, tetrafluoroethylene and difluorocarbene. This has nothing to do with the fluorine part: you get symptoms of poisoning 4-8 hours later from those vapors, not like the immediate chemical burns of fluorine gas.
Compounds are just plain different than their elements. Mercury is pretty bad for you, but you could swallow a pure sample of mercury sulfide and nothing would happen to you. You have a little knowledge of chemistry but haven’t internalized the theories.
Also: good test scores in high school means you’re a perfect candidate for Dunning-Kruger. Anyway your internal model of chemicals is as a collection of atoms which are kinda like Legos, instead of thinking of bonds and electrical fields.
The health effects of Teflon decay (only by overheating, really) are not caused by fluorine. They are caused by the decay products, tetrafluoroethylene and difluorocarbene. This has nothing to do with the fluorine part: you get symptoms of poisoning 4-8 hours later from those vapors, not like the immediate chemical burns of fluorine gas.
Compounds are just plain different than their elements. Mercury is pretty bad for you, but you could swallow a pure sample of mercury sulfide and nothing would happen to you. You have a little knowledge of chemistry but haven’t internalized the theories.
Also: good test scores in high school means you’re a perfect candidate for Dunning-Kruger. Anyway your internal model of chemicals is as a collection of atoms which are kinda like Legos, instead of thinking of bonds and electrical fields.