Make sure to check out the article about flame retardants in our Spring 2008 quarterly newsletter Healthy Choices, Healthy Lives: 'Do we need toxic chemical flame retardants in plastic consumer products?' [PDF]

The Problem: Toxic flame retardants in furniture threaten the health of humans, the environment, and wildlife

Exposure to brominated and chlorinated flame retardants pose a risk to children's health

In 1977, brominated Tris, which had been used to make children's sleepwear fire resistant, was banned after it was found to be carcinogenic in animal tests and to leach into children's bodies. Its replacement, chlorinated Tris, was also later banned after it was found to be a mutagen, meaning it changed DNA. Today, chlorinated Tris is the second most-used fire retardant in furniture, and was recently deemed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to be "a probable human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence in animals."

Watch the recent CBS Evening News segment about fire retardant chemicals in consumer products and a segment that discusses a possible ban on fire retardants in some states.

Brominated fire retardants bioaccumulate in people and animals

PBDEs have increased 40-fold in human breast milk since the 1970s. Women in North America on average have ten times the levels of women in Europe or Asia. PBDEs have the potential to disrupt thyroid hormone balance and contribute to a variety of neurological and developmental deficits, including low intelligence and learning disabilities. Recent studies found that pet cats in the U.S. have very high levels of PBDEs in their blood. Researchers identified an association between the PBDEs in cats and hyperthyroidism. This is a new disease in cats that emerged around 1980 soon after PBDEs began to be used in significant quantities, and is now the second most common disease in cats.

Firefighters have higher risk for some cancers

When toxic fire retardants burn cancer-causing dioxins are formed. In November 2006, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine published an analysis of 32 studies that found that fire fighters have significantly elevated rates of four types of cancer:  multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate, and testicular cancer, likely resulting from chemicals exposures at burn sites. Read more >

Alternatives: Fire-safety without toxics

Equally fire-safe alternatives are available

Affordable, less toxic flame retardants are available. Alternatives include inherently flame resistant metals and woods, naturally flame resistant barriers, and additives including silicon, boric acid, and phosphates.

More fire-retardant chemicals doesn't mean fewer fire deaths

An analysis of fire data from 1980 to 2002 shows that, among the eight most populated states in the U.S., the rate of reduction of fire deaths in California, the only such state that has regulations leading to the use of fire retardant chemicals, is nonetheless similar to seven other states that do not regulate the flammability of furniture.

Fire fighters

Due to elevated levels of cancer among fire fighters, the California Professional Fire Fighters supports AB 706. In addition, the International Association of Fire Fighters as well as many state fire associations support new laws in Washington, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois and other states that would ban the use of certain brominated or chlorinated fire retardants.

THE SOLUTION: Smarter Regulation = More Safety

AB 706 - The California Furniture Safety and Fire Prevention Act will:

1. Provide the furniture industry more options for creating affordable and even safer products;
2. Create opportunities for green chemistry innovation;
3. Reduce workplace exposure to toxic chemicals for furniture industry workers and fire fighters;
4. Protect the health of future generations by banning toxic brominated and chlorinated chemicals from products that come in direct contact with our families.

Supporters

• Bluewater Network/Friends of the Earth (co-sponsor)
• MOMS - Making Our Milk Safe (co-sponsor)
• Breast Cancer Fund
• Breast Cancer Action
• California Labor Federation
• California Professional Firefighters
• California State Firefighters' Association
• Center for Environmental Health
• Coalition For A Safe Environment
• Consumer Attorneys of California
• Commonweal
• Consumer Federation of California
• Environmental Working Group
• Episcopal Diocese of California 
• Firefighters Burn Institute
• Healthy Children Organizing Project
• MomsRising.org
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• The Ocean Conservancy
• Oceana
• Physicians for Social Responsibility
• Planning and Conservation League
• Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522
• San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798
• Sierra Club
• Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
• The Trauma Foundation

NOTES & REFERENCES

1. Tris as mutagen: A. Blum and B.N. Ames (1977), Flame Retardant Additives as Possible Cancer Hazards:  The main flame retardant in children's pajamas is a mutagen and should not be used. Science 195, 17.
2. Flame retardants in animals: PET CATS IN THE U.S. HAVE HIGH POLYBROMINATED DIPHENYL ETHER (PBDE) SERUM LEVELS.J.A. Dye, M. Venier, C.R. Ward, L.Y. Zhu, R.A. Hites, L.S. Birnbaum Society of Toxicology2007 Annual meeting Abstract number 853
3. Bioaccumulation: Tomy, G. T.; Palace, V. P.; Halldorson, T.; Braekevelt, E.; Danell, R.; Wautier, K.; Evans, B.; Brinkworth, L.; Fisk, A. T., Bioaccumulation, biotransformation, and biochemical effects of brominated diphenyl ethers in juvenile lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Environmental Science & Technology 2004, 38, (5), 1496-1504.
4. Health effects of PBDEs: Viberg, H.; Fredriksson, A.; Jakobsson, E.; Orn, U.; Eriksson, P., Neurobehavioral derangements in adult mice receiving decabrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE 209) during a defined period of neonatal brain development. Toxicological Sciences 2003, 76, (1), 112-120.
5. Risks to children's health: P. Grandjean, P.J. Landrigan, Developmental Neurotoxicity of Industrial Chemicals. The Lancet, 368. (16 December 2006); Susan L. Schantz, John J. Widholm, Deborah C. Rice, Effects of PCB Exposure on Neuropsychological Function in Children. Environmental Health Perspectives. 111(3) pp357-576 (March 2003)
6. Flame retardants in mother's milk: Lunder S, Sharp R. 2003. Mothers' Milk: Record levels of toxic fire retardants found in American mothers' breast milk. Environmental Working Group. www.ewg.org/reports/mothersmilk/
7. Cancer risk among fire fighters: LeMasters GK, et al, December 2006, Cancer risk among firefighters: a review and meta-analysis of 32 studies, J. Occup. Environ Med. 2006 Nov; 48(11): 1189-202.
8. Firefighters support PBDE phase-out: Duffy, Richard, assistant to the general president, International Association of Firefighters, in a letter on behalf of the association to Kelly Fox, president, Washington State Council of Fire Fighters, January 26, 2007: "IAFF believes that the passage of legislation banning brominated flame retardants . . . is a step in the right direction from improving the health and safety of our fire fighters . . ."
9. California fire deaths compared to other states: National Fire Protection Association, Fire Death Rates By State, http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/statebystatechart.pdf.
10. Babich M, Dec 21, 2006, Peer Reviewed CPSC Staff Research Reports on Upholstered Furniture Flammability, page 12.

Dr. Arlene Blum's Publications on Flame Retardants

1. The fire retardant dilemma - Science 318(5848):194b-195.
2. November 2006 Op-ed in the New York Times - Fire Retardant Chemicals
3. 2005 study on Body Burden of Toxic Chemicals - as reported in the Oakland Tribune
4. Flame-retardant Additives as Possible Cancer Hazard (PDF)
5. Another Flame Retardant, Tris-(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)-phosphate and it's Expected Metabolites are Mutagens (PDF)
6. Children Absorb Tri s-BP Flame Retardant from Sleepwear (PDF)

Related Publications

1. Toxic Dilemma (PDF) Editorial by Donald Kennedy - Science 318 - 2007