Toxic Flame Retardants: In Our Homes, Our Dust, Our Lives

— filed under: Toxic Flame Retardants, PBTs, Chemical Industry

Toxic flame retardants are one of the most common sources of toxicity in our homes and our lives. They are used on everything from computer casings, to furniture, to carpeting, to children's products. "The problem is, they don't stay put," says Rebecca Williams, a reporter for The Environment Report. "They leach out of products and they get into us."

Toxic Flame Retardants: In Our Homes, Our Dust, Our Lives

Health concerns surrounding these chemicals—including everything from cancer to thyroid issues to reproductive harm—are serious enough that many groups including fire professionals are interested in getting toxic flame retardants out of our daily lives.

From a letter released by the International Association of Fire Fighters:

"Many studies involving fire fighters exposed to these and other toxic gases during active fire fighting, overhaul, and long term exposure from these chemicals penetrating protective gear, have found that fire fighters have a much greater risk of contracting cancer, heart and lung disease, and other debilitating diseases. While we support the concept of flame retardant chemicals, there are [safer] alternatives."

When we talk about toxic flame retardants on Safer States, we are referring to a whole group of chemicals that are used on household products for the purposes of slowing down combustion. Unlike some chemicals (cadmium, for example), the concern isn't with a specific single chemical. Instead, we reference a group of chemicals intended for a single purpose, nearly all of which have been shown to have harmful effects on children, fire fighters, fish and wildlife.

In this post, we will be discussing a variety of flame retardants, particularly PBDE flame retardants and toxic Tris flame retardants. PBDEs are a class of flame retardants formerly used in many household products. Tris flame retardants are used in baby products, couches, car seats, and other household items. Several flame retardants have been banned or phased out in the United States, but others are still used as ingredients in every day products. You can see a more specific glossary of flame retardants at the end of this post.

Banning toxic flame retardants doesn't mean they disappear.

Even when banned or eliminated, toxic flame retardants can stick around in our environment. Many of them are considered to be persistent, bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) which means that they build up in our systems, stick around in the environment for years and migrate broadly beyond national boundaries.

Read the rest of this post at Safer States

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Toxic Flame Retardants: In Our Homes, Our Dust, Our Lives

Banning toxic flame retardants doesn't mean they disappear.

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