Remember that devil's dilemma, "Would you rather freeze to death or burn to death"? Now it seems that in an attempt to minimize death by burning, California lawmakers have inadvertently created a third option: slow death by chemical poisoning. No choice about it this time.
California law requires that chemical fire retardants be added not only to your living room sofa, chairs and electronics, but also to children's products like car seats, changing pads, gymnastics mats and nursing pillows for breastfeeding infants. Despite California being the only jurisdiction that requires it, most major furniture manufacturers, whether located here or abroad, add fire retardants to any furniture sold in the United States. These flame retardants are associated with lower IQs, undescended testicles in infants, lower birth weights, reduced fertility, hormone disruption, increased risks of cancer, liver and thyroid toxicity and genetic mutations.
The harmful effects of flame retardants were first documented in the late 1970s. We have since learned that these chemicals are unstable, migrating from furniture and baby products through house dust. A 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group showed that toddlers typically have three times the levels of flame retardants in their blood as their mothers -- not surprising given that small children spend a lot of time on the floor, where dust accumulates, and constantly put their hands in their mouths.
But here is the ultimate irony: after decades of tough California flame retardant laws, there is no evidence that they actually save lives. Rather, there is heightened concern that burning these chemicals may increase cancer risk to the firefighters who inhale smoke laden with these elevated levels of toxins. Firefighters, public health officials, doctors, furniture manufacturers and even sewage treatment agencies -- concerned that the flame retardants easily migrate from furniture into house dust, which, through house cleaning and other actions, is washed down the drain and into sewer systems-- are now calling for a change in California standards to provide equivalent fire safety alternatives that do not require the use of toxic chemicals.
Although many have tried to change this troubling situation in California, the legislature has failed to respond. Partisan politics and lobbying by special-interest trade associations like the American Chemistry Council and the Bromine Council have successfully killed legislation introduced by environmental champions like Mark Leno before it can even get out of committee. How can our elected leaders live with themselves when they know that they are failing to protect public health, especially that of our children?
It is time for Governor Jerry Brown to use his executive authority and bully pulpit to push state regulators to end rules requiring the use of toxic chemicals in furniture, gym mats and baby products sold in California. He should send a signal to legislative leaders that their passivity in the face of this very real danger to public health is unacceptable, by sponsoring legislation that ends the use of the toxic fire retardants poisoning our homes, our children and our environment.
Here's what you can do in the meantime:
Flame retardant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brominated flame retardant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many hundreds of peer reviewed toxicology and epidemology studies of halogenated flame retardants show their accumulation and harm to humans and animals. You can read 100 plus paper each year from the Brominated Flame Retardant meetings http://www.bfr2011.org/ and the many hundreds from the Dioxin meetings, http://www.dioxin2011.org/
Please check out www.greensciencepolicy.org and you will learn that in many uses such as furniture foam the flame retardants do not provide a fire safety benefit. Products still burn in seconds and give off more of the toxic gases that cause most fire deaths with the retardants present.
Selling flame retardants is highly profitable, The major support for their use comes from the chemical industry as is evidenced by the many comments about this article from the American chemical council in favor of their use.
Arlene Blum, PhD
Visiting Scholar in Chemistry
University of California, Berkeley,
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that flame retardants are one of several tools in the fire protection tool box that can provide essential time for panicked and confused victims to escape and for fire fighters to save lives. You can learn more about flame retardants by visiting the website of the American Chemistry Council (www.americanchemistry.com).
Bryan Goodman
Manager, Product/Panel Communications
The American Chemistry Council
(More)
To start with, it is well documented that flame retardants are effective in slowing and preventing fires. Fire statistics make it plain that California’s more stringent requirements are working; in fact, according to the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, “incidence of fire death, injury and property loss due to fires involving upholstered furniture has dropped at a higher per capita rate in California than in the United States as a whole.†Several other recent studies speak to the efficacy of flame retardants, including a December 2009 report commissioned by the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which determined that flame retardant standards in the UK for furniture and furnishings “equate to 54 lives saved per year, 780 fewer casualties and 1065 fewer fires per year.â€
(More)
The author also articulateÂs a concern regarding smoke inhalation and increased cancer risk. But unfounded concerns are not a basis for restrictinÂg a valuable and important product that has a critical safety mission, and the author fails to back her “concern†with any evidence. In fact, a lifecycle assessment of fire safety for upholstereÂd furniture suggests that the opposite may be the case; where flame retardants reduce the frequency and gravity of a fire, this means less smoke – and less smoke toxicity – overall.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that flame retardants are one of several tools in the fire protection tool box that can provide essential time for panicked and confused victims to escape and for fire fighters to save lives. You can learn more about flame retardants by visiting the website of the American Chemistry Council (www.americÂanchemistrÂy.com).
Bryan Goodman
The American Chemistry Council