I have not talked to my friend yet but I did find out something about a test done with the silicone pads. https://skunkpharmresearch.com/spraying-butane-directly-on-silicone-mats/
That test was done for the thicker "baking mats" but there is something interesting in the email from the Oilslick representative.
"The matrix of silicone in common parchment paper (non-Quilon / silicone coated) is extremely fragile compared to a pad. I imagine the violence of swelling and shrinking on that scale would be tenfold compared to the effect that prompted our own change of material."
Given that there is both pressure and thermal cycling there is reasonable concern for some containment coming from the degradation of parchment.
He also mentioned that silicone is a poor choice of materials when left in prolonged exposure to non-polars. Which I find interesting considering most oils you find in retail come in folded up parchment paper. I personally have found degradation in parchment which was used to store oil in the freezer which I originally attributed to moisture but now I wonder if it was due to thermal cycling back and forth ambient to freezing. I would usually only keep about a 1/4 that way to have on hand chilled to break off a piece to infuse coconut oil as needed so it would have been exposed to changes almost daily over a month or so.
The next question is there some sorta of basic test we could conduct that may give us indication that silicone is coming off the papers. Their test was much easier given the larger mass of the mats but with the much lighter piece of parchment it would require an analytical balance instead of the cheaper scales most of us use.
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