I haven't checked, but I highly doubt that PTFE coatings in cookware are banned in the US, and any talk of 'sneaking it in through the back door' as hardened or multilayered sounds suspiciously like urban legend too me. For a fact, a PTFE coating cannot be disguised as a hardened coating, since PTFE is actually quite scratch-prone.
There are hardened non-stick coatings, which are based on aluminium oxide.
PTFE is harmless as such. The black speck usually derive from mechanically scratching the coating, which will eventually lead to delamination and small slivers of PTFE material dislodging from the coating. As said, these are chemically inert (although you should potentially check what the black colourant in the coating is, PTFE is white by itself), and quite harmless.
The only potential problem with PTFE is heating it to its decomposition point, at which point it will release fluoride and fluorocarbon radicals, which ARE harmful. This can only happen if you put a PTFE pot with NOTHING in it (no water, no oil, no other food) on a hot stove and leave it on there long enough to start smoking...
PTFE on cutting tools is mainly used to decrease friction between the side of the blade, and the cut material. A common problem in, e.g., meat cutting is that the cut meat will, through capillary action, suction, and other processes cling to the side of the knife blade, and thereby greatly increase cutting 'resistance' (through friction). A PTFE coating will reduce this friction. Whether a PTFE coating makes sense on razor blades (at least those actually intended for shaving) is doubtful - the surface area of the cut material (hairs) in contact with the blade appears too small to really matter...