Your stove is capable of burning your oil and your food, which will make carcinogens.
Preheating an empty pan is just not something you should do if you're cooking with Teflon. You'll want to at least put some oil or something in there, or have a temperature control stove. It's a tradition that doesn't apply.
You may have missed who I was replying to in the thread. The toplevel comment quotes Teflon's website talking about "cookware" in a generic sense, like heating up a pan with nothing in it is universally bad. That's bullshit. Obviously Teflon doesn't want to directly admit that it is specifically Teflon that, when heated, releases gases that will kill your birds dead. This happens at temperatures that would be no problem at all for stainless or carbon steel. That was my point. It's not the "overheating cookware" that's the problem, corporate weasel wording aside, it's specifically the Teflon that is the problem. I don't own or use any non-stick cookware.
Preheating an empty pan is just not something you should do if you're cooking with Teflon. You'll want to at least put some oil or something in there, or have a temperature control stove. It's a tradition that doesn't apply.