Green Science Policy Institute Newsletters

Based in part on the hard work of our coalition this April, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Italy, Sweden, Greece and the Czech Republic rejected yet another "candle" standard which would have led to flame retardant chemicals in the enclosures around televisions without a fire safety benefit. According to our colleagues at the European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation, ECOS, this "shows the impact that we can have as a civil society, sending a very strong signal to chemical manufacturers."

"Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea" is born with high levels of furniture flame retardants

Donna Mensching's informative new study of 72 cats (including my cat Midnight) with abstract below confirmed that domestic cats have high concentrations of the PBDE flame-retardant in their blood. Midnight's blood levels were very high and my house dust at 95mg/g was the highest in this Illinois study.

Donna compared blood levels in healthy and hyperthyroid geriatric cats and found no significant difference. She also found that household dust PBDE levels were significantly higher in homes with hyperthyroid cats.

Brominated Flame Retardant Chemical in Soft Drinks

The cloudy look to Fanta Orange, Mountain Dew, or Fresca isn't fruit juice but rather brominated vegetable oils (BVOs), first developed as a flame retardant. Used in about 10% of the soft drinks sold in the USA, BVOs break down into brominated fatty acids which bioaccumulate in body fat with a potential for toxicity. In Europe and Japan, BVOs are not permitted in soft drinks and natural alternatives are used.

Do we need these brominated chemicals in our drinks and bodies?

In a paper published on line on May 18, 2011 in Environmental Science & Technology, Heather Stapleton and colleagues found that 80% of baby products tested contained toxic or untested flame retardant chemicals. Foam from 100 changing table pads, nursing pillows, car seats, and other baby products were tested. Here are a few of the findings:

• 36% of the baby products contained the same cancer-causing Tris removed from baby pajamas in 1977
• Levels of Tris were up to 12% of the weight of the foam
• 79% of the products contained toxic or untested flame retardants

Mark Leno introduced the Consumer Choice Fire Safety Act February 1, 2011. This Senate bill, SB147, calls for the development of an alternative furniture flammability standard that will increase fire safety and can be met without flame retardant chemicals.

View Senator Leno's Bill Introduction

Dear all,

There has been excellent press coverage of research from Arnie Schecter and his colleagues finding high levels of a flame retardant in butter.
http://news.discovery.com/human/flame-retardants-butter.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Please see the abstract of the research below. Write us if you would like a copy of the entire article.

Dear friend,

Please find below significant research of 2010 linking adverse reproductive, neurological, thyroid, and carcinogenic heath effects with flame retardants used in furniture, baby products, electronics, and buildings.

These findings should help facilitate 2011 changes in policy and practice to reduce the health burden from these chemicals. Please see below for information on how you can support these changes.

Reproductive

The Green Science Policy Institute has three project updates to share:

(1) We are conducting a new research study on the association between the TB117 label and the flame retardants present in couches. To find out if there are halogenated flame retardants in your couch, please consider joining our Couch Study. Contact Michelle Gabriel for the criteria to join our study. Your donation of a foam sample from your couch will contribute to our efforts to reduce toxics in our homes and bodies.

Two new papers discuss how PBDE congeners can cross blood–placenta and blood–brain barriers, causing subtle changes in some parameters of neurobehavior, changes in circulating thyroid hormone levels, and changes in reproductive endpoints. Some of these effects appear to be irreversible. Please let Rebecca know if you would like a pdf of either of these papers.

1) Kodavanti PRS, Curras-Collazo MC (2010); Neuroendocrine actions of organohalogens: Thyroid hormones, arginine vasopressin, and neuroplasticity, Front. Neuroendocrinol. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.06.005

In a newly published study by Sonya Lunder et al., PBDEs were assessed in blood samples collected from 20 mothers and their children. The sum of PBDEs for children were about 2.8 times higher than for mothers. This research suggests that children’s increased hand-to-mouth activity and exposures from breast milk may result in greater ingestion of PBDEs than adults. Testing mother-child pairs can control for variability between households, diets, and perhaps even genetics.

Firemaster 550 (FM550,) a mixture of four flame retardants that are either known to be toxic or lack adequate information, continues to be used in furniture and baby products to meet the California furniture flammability standard Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117).

Two of these ingredients were found in seven species in the Arctic according to the report attached, "New brominated flame retardants in Arctic biota".

Three new messages with very worrisome news about both increased usage and human toxicity of halogenated flame retardants are below. This is in spite of the recent decaBDE phase out and the Green Science Policy Institute's success in stopping new flammability standards that could have led to billions of pounds of additional BFRs and CFRs.

1. According to the February 1 issue of C&E News, Albermarle's profits rose 377% in 2009 compared to 2008:

The first research linking flame retardant exposure to reduced human fertility, carried out by Kim Harley, and collaborators, is available and described below in a press release from UC Berkeley.