very safe when handled correctly

Too many people are not educated about that.

The problem lies in the manufacturing of these needed chemicals. When these chemicals get into the environment, because of improper safety managemen

Which is one of the reasons for that law, see:

Dubbed "Amara's Law" after 20-year-old cancer victim Amara Strande, who in 2023 succumbed to a rare type of liver cancer linked to PFAS after growing up near a Minnesota-based 3M plant that dumped them into the local water supply, the new regulation bans the chemicals and any items made with them from being sold within the state.

And how do you dispose of it correctly? Cookware shouldn’t need to come with an MSDS sheet

Stainless steel! Neither of those is something you want to use to simmer a tomato sauce.

A bit ironic that a group labeling themselves the "Cookware Sustainability Alliance" is fighting to continue making unsustainable cookware.

Both the fact that they have a voice that influences politicians more than their actual voters and that they're allowed to call themselves that name is really a perfect representation of society.

It is chemically inert. It just becomes a problem when you physically abrade it into billions of microparticles that become embedded in your tissues...

I moved to using cast iron and steel pans, I found even hand washing non-stick pans they eventually just get scuffed up after years.

I'd rather just use a few more drops of oil on a regular pan.

In reality no one can say for certain, but a lot of research is pointing to long term exposure being bad. The problem is that the research to determine how bad will take decades (and has been going on for decades at this point). Right now it's being used as the boogeyman for every sort of ill from causing cancer, infertility, issues with lactation, liver failure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, and auto-immune disorders. Basically the preliminary research says that it at least in part impacts all of these things, we just don't know how much.

On the flip side bacon also causes cancer and high cholesterol at some level. That's not to make light of the situation, but it does give some credence to your earlier statement.

The thing people are missing in these discussions is what are they willing to live without if we don't use these chemicals. Going without non-stick cookware is literally the tip of the iceberg. How do we feel about cars, furniture, and mattresses being more flammable because they don't have the fire retarding forever chemicals? How do we feel about stain resistance, oil resistance, water resistance, and slip resistance in everything including shoes, umbrellas, clothes, oven mitts, jackets, and more? How do we feel about needing to clean everything including clothes, appliances, and floors more often. How about in industry where it's used as a fume suppressant so smelly chemicals don't waft as far or fire fighting foams the next time an electric car catches on fire? This stuff is even in the wrapping of your food so the it doesn't go through the packaging and cause a mess as easily.

Dupont coined the phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry" and that chemistry is PFAS. It's in your clothes when you buy them, it's in your detergent when you clean them, it's in the cleaner that you wipe your washer off with, it's in the floor sealant of the laundry room that washer is in, it's in the gloves you wear while cleaning that laundry room, it's in the carpet in the room next to the laundry room, and the list goes on and on.

Dropping PFAS chemicals fully would probably send us back to the 1960's or we'll end up replacing it with something just as bad that we don't know the effects of yet.

Yes. Get as far away from that shit as you can.