Flame Retardant Chemicals Persist In California Homes

October 1, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Upholstery on October 2008 As California debates a new standard that would likely increase the use of flame retardant for some household products, a new report by a non-profit research organization finds that chemicals that were once used as a flame retardant for furniture are present in California homes—and in human bloodstreams—at far higher levels than other states.

Chemical ingredients of the flame retardant penta-BDE were found in the dust of California homes at four to 10 times the levels found elsewhere in the United States. The peer-reviewed study was published online in Environmental Science & Technology.

Penta-BDE production in the U.S. ended in 2004 following bans in several states including California. However, furniture treated with the chemical is still present in homes. The researchers also found double the amount of penta-BDEs in the blood of California residents compared to the nationwide average. The study was conducted by Silent Spring Institute in collaboration with the University of California Berkeley, Brown University, and Communities for a Better Environment, a California environmental justice organization. The PBDE study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the New York Community Trust.

“This study finds that if you live in California you are at far greater risk of exposure to penta-BDE flame retardants than if you live anywhere else in the country or the world,” said lead author Dr. Ami Zota, a scientist at Silent Spring Institute. “The health effects are of particular concern for babies, children, and pregnant women.”

The California legislature is now considering extending flammability standards to bed coverings and pillows, a change that could increase the use of flame retardant chemicals and materials the report’s authors call potentially toxic. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is also considering adopting fire standards for furniture and bed coverings.

In order to comply with California’s strict standards, furniture foam is now treated with chemicals other than the penta-BDE that was the focus of the study. The report’s authors say the chemicals now in use include tris(1,3-dichloro-2- propyl)phosphate (TDCP), which they label a probable human carcinogen.

The study compared dust samples collected from 49 homes in two California communities with 120 Cape Cod, Mass., homes, along with results from published home tests in Texas, Boston, Washington, D.C., Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany. The researchers also analyzed regional differences in human blood levels of PBDEs from more than 2,000 people in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally-representative data set.