Popular Leather Sofa Falls Apart, Customers Complain..Today News.. (Jennifer Convertibles)

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9. UPDATE.

http://www.psr.org/environment-and-health/environmental-health-policy-institute/flame-retardants.html

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About

Welcome to PSR's Environmental Health Policy Institute, where we ask questions -- then we ask the experts to answer them. Join us as physicians, health professionals, and environmental health experts share their ideas, inspiration, and analysis about toxic chemicals and environmental health policy.

This Month's Contributors

Courtney Carignan, PhD
Kristine Jinnett, PhD
Pamela K. Miller
Ami Zota, ScD, MS

Flame Retardants: Is California's Victory the End of This Story?
Posted by Kathy Attar

Babies born in the U.S. have in their bodies the highest average concentrations of flame retardant chemicals of any infants in the world. How did this come to be? For decades, manufacturers have treated furniture cushions and upholstery with toxic chemicals to comply with a flammability standard set by a lone state, California.

Our latest Environmental Health Policy Institute looks at how this standard -- and the tons of toxic flame retardant chemicals it brought into our homes and lives -- affect our health and the health of our children. Exposure to flame-retardant chemicals has been linked to reproductive and developmental toxicity, hormonal disruption, immunotoxicity, lowered IQ and cancer. Many of these chemicals persist in the environment and can move up the food chain to reside in humans. One example is the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), a class of flame retardants; high levels of this chemical are found in the maternal blood serum of indigenous women of Alaska. Research also reveals that competitive gymnasts in the U.S. have three times the level of brominated flame retardant PentaBDE, in their bodies compared to the general population, due to its presence in gym mats. Read our Institute and find out more about flame retardants’ persistent and bio-accumulative nature and dangerous health effects.

Fortunately, the flammability standard was recently rejected by California Governor Jerry Brown, due primarily to the advocacy activities of a group of scientists and public health advocates. California’s victory will most likely have national implications as manufacturers no longer have to meet this outdated standard.

Read on to learn more about the campaign’s successes, as well as the current and future health implications of exposure to toxic flame retardants.

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http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/11/21/california-governor-jerry-brown-announces-new-furniture-flammability-standards/

California Governor Jerry Brown Announces New Furniture Flammability Standards
By Max Pringle

California Governor Jerry Brown has announced the approval of new state furniture flammability standards that will reduce the required levels of chemical flame retardants. Some retardants can pose a health risk.

(Sacramento, CA)
Thursday, November 21, 2013

Russ Heimerich with the California Department of Consumer Affairs says prior flammability tests focused on the insides of furniture, while the new tests focus on areas where smoldering cigarettes and other heat sources would pose the greatest risk.

“They can either prove to us that their covering fabric meets the smolder test, or if it doesn’t, that they have a barrier underneath that covering fabric that does meet a smolder test,” says Heimerich.

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