Study: Furniture FR rule leads to toxins

PBDE levels said high in California

Heath Combs -- Furniture Today, October 3, 2008

NEWTON, Mass. - A new study reports that because of California's furniture flammability standard, the state's residents and their homes contain high levels of the toxic flame retardant PBDE.

The study by the Silent Spring Institute reports that the standard passed three decades ago, which requires furniture to be fire resistant to an open flame for 12 seconds, led to increased exposure to penta-BDE, a commercial flame retardant banned in 2004. The substance was added to furniture foam to meet the standard.

The study's authors said the findings are important because California is considering a new standard that would likely increase the amount of flame retardant used in some household products.

The chemicals enter the body when breathed or ingested in contaminated house dust, and the average Californian's blood contains twice the national average level of the toxin, according to the study.

Animal studies show the chemical causes thyroid hormone disruption and affects developing reproductive and nervous systems, according to a press release on the new research.

Results of the study have been published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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.

It compared dust samples collected from 49 homes in two California communities with 120 Cape Cod, Mass., homes, and with published tests on homes in Texas, Boston, Washington, D.C., Canada, Britain and Germany.

Chemical ingredients of PBDE were found in the dust of California homes at four to 10 times the levels in other U.S. areas, and 200 times higher than in Europe. The researchers also found double the amount of PBDEs in the blood of California residents compared with the U.S. average.

The report said that furniture treated with the chemical is still present in homes and that most states have not banned the use of flame retardant PBDE in imported furniture.

The study added that while the California legislature and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission consider extending flammability standards to bed coverings and pillows, alternative flame retardants being used may also be carcinogens or have not been adequately tested.