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What are PBDE's?
According in the ISPA (internationals
Sleep Products Association) The following is taken directly
from their web site: polybrominated
diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs. PBDEs are also used to make many
other products – including electronic equipment, TV set
cabinets and computer monitor cabinets – comply with
applicable fire standards.
Finally, the state of California has recently set new mattress
flammability standards that will increase a manufacturer’s
options for making its products safer. The mattress industry
is working closely with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
to establish a national mattress flammability standard that
is based on the same test method and pass/fail criteria developed
by California. While no state or federal flammability standard
will make a mattress fireproof, the mattress industry supports
these efforts because they will demonstrably improve the safety
of our products in a manner that is both comfortable for the
consumer and practical. You
can read more about this at ISPA.org.
Then
from the other perspective you can see write ups from organization
like the EWG
(environmental Working Group) that have articles like:
Bill
would phase out and replace flame retardants
By: Mark Prado
Marin Independent Journal
April 2, 2004
Legislation introduced yesterday by U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey,
D-Petaluma, and two other representatives would phase out
nationwide flame retardants linked to neurological impairment
and reproductive damage.
The Toxic
Flame Retardant Prohibition Act would ban two types of polybrominated
diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, two years after the enactment of
the legislation. The two types, Penta and Octa, recently were
banned in California in a law penned by Assemblywoman Wilma
Chan, D-Oakland.
While
Woolsey was introducing her bill in Washington, Chan and the
Environmental Working Group announced a public education campaign
warning East Bay residents about the dangers of PBDEs in San
Francisco Bay fish.
The chemicals
are widely used in flame retardants found in common products
including upholstered furniture, mattresses, computers and
other electronic equipment.
Environment
California, sponsors of the California legislation, said the
flame retardants escape from consumer products into air and
water and have been found in household dust and in the food
supply. The organization said the chemicals accumulate in
the human body, pass from a mother to a developing fetus and
have been found in human breast milk.
Researchers
say the chemicals have been linked to thyroid hormone dysfunction,
disruption of brain development in fetuses and infant children
and possibly cancer.
Woolsey,
who joined Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, and Rep. Diana DeGette,
D-Colo., as sponsors of the act, said exposure to PBDEs in
the Bay Area is growing at an alarming rate.
"Researchers
discovered last year that San Francisco Bay Area women have
three to 10 times greater amounts of PBDEs in their breast
tissue than either Japanese or European women," Woolsey
said.
Woolsey
said the Environmental Working Group compared fish caught
in San Francisco Bay in 2002 to fish caught there in 1997.
"The
study concluded that the levels of PBDEs in two species of
fish had doubled over a three- to four-year period. Researchers
have found that levels of PBDEs in bay harbor seals were 100
times higher in 1998 than they were 10 years earlier,"
Woolsey said.
"We
can no longer ignore these alarming increases. In the Bay
Area, we now know that PBDEs are a part of our ecosystem whether
we like it or not," she said.
Yana Kucher,
environmental health advocate for Environment California,
said many companies are using alternatives that protect people
from fire but are not linked to negative health effects.
"We
think the bill does achieve some goals," said Peter O'Toole,
a spokesman for the Bromine Scientific and Environmental Forum,
an industry group representing companies that manufacture
PBDEs. "But we are concerned about some unintended consequences,
such as a gap in fire safety."
Penta,
Octa and Deca are three main chemical formulations of PBDEs
and Deca is suspected of breaking down into components of
Penta and Octa.
The legislation
requires labeling of products containing any of the three
PBDE products within a year of the legislation's enactment.
In addition
to the California law, laws in Maine and Washington require
that Penta and Octa PBDEs be phased out by 2008. (this was
taken directly from the EWG web site)
Still
more info from the following: These links will take you directly
to articles about PBDEs. Or just do a Google search, it is
mighty scary what you will find. Educate yourself. Dodo about
your food, why not your mattress and your furniture!
Silicon
Valley Toxic Coalition
National
Water Research Institute in Canada
Mindfully.org
WHAT IS BORIC ACID?
This is direct from web sites, you will need to click on
the links to find out more, good gosh if we put in everything,
well, that is all this web site would be about:
Chemical
safely data cards
Strobel
company (they make chemical mattresses)
We will be adding, more, but isn't this scary enough?
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