Fire Retardants Are One Step Closer to Being Banned in Furniture and Baby Products
Flame retardant chemicals are found in most of your favorite foam-filled furniture – up until recently, California law even required them. But they do not prevent fires, and they do carry health risks. Now the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is one step closer to banning them.
Quartz reports that the CPSC recently published a guidance document advising manufacturers not to use organohalogen flame retardants (OFRs). The document also directs resellers to stop reselling products containing these chemicals, and consumers – especially pregnant women – to ask questions about what is in the furniture and baby products they buy. Here’s how they describe their reading of the evidence:
Numerous peer-reviewed published studies show that the vast majority of consumers have measurable amounts of OFR in their blood. Known harmful effects of these chemicals on consumer health include: impaired reproductive function (eg, abnormal gonadal development, decreased ovarian follicle count, decreased sperm count, increased time to pregnancy); neurological effects (eg, decreased IQ in children, impaired memory, learning deficits, changes in motor behavior, hyperactivity); endocrine disruption and interference with the action of thyroid hormones (potentially contributing to diabetes and obesity); genotoxicity; crayfish; and immune disorders. These chemicals disproportionately affect the health of vulnerable populations, including children.
This guidance document is not enforceable, but the CPSC is starting the process of deciding whether OFR requires a warning label or possibly a complete ban.
For now, all you can do is check the label on upholstered furniture and baby products; he has to tell if flame retardants have been used. There’s a good chance he’ll say yes right now, but thanks to this rule, fire retardants can be much less common when you buy your next sofa.