News Coverage
Solis sponsors fire-retardant chemical ban
PDBE's said dangerous to health
Published April 4, 2004
Saturday, April 03, 2004 - Fire-retardant chemicals that scientists say pose widespread health risks would be banned nationwide under legislation introduced last week by Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte.
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are used to fireproof hundreds of everyday products, from mattresses to electronic equipment.
But recent tests on fetal animals show exposure to PBDEs can affect learning, memory and growth development, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based research group.
"The toxins are just so prevalent in our environment. They are found in appliances, computers, telephones, plastics, and children's pajamas. Clearly, this is something that we need to address,' Solis said.
The Toxic Flame Retardant Prohibition Act, which Solis introduced Wednesday with Reps. Lynn Woolsey, D-Santa Rosa, and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would prohibit chemical companies from processing and distributing PBDEs, as well as chemicals that break down into PBDEs, within two years.
The bill is modeled on legislation already passed in California last year, Solis said. However, the California bill will not take effect until 2008.
The federal bill comes in response to the Environmental Working Group study, which found traces of PBDEs in human breast milk have been doubling every two to five years. The study sparked concerns that the chemicals could have harmful side effects on the brain development of fetuses and young children.
"In the United States we have very high rates, and they keep doubling,' Solis said. "The problem will keep prolonging if we do not inform the public.'
But some groups are concerned that using alternate fire-retardant chemicals might not work as effectively as PBDEs, compromising fire safety standards.
"There's always a concern when you are taking a product out of the marketplace that there might be a gap in fire safety,' said Peter O'Toole, U.S. program director for the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum, an international trade organization representing chemical companies.
"The question is, are the potential alternatives going to have a high fire safety standard and are they environmentally proven?'
Unlike chemicals that disintegrate over time, PBDEs stay intact in the environment for decades without breaking down, which causes PBDE levels to increase in the environment over time, said Allan Hirsch, a spokesman for the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, part of the state's Environmental Protection Agency.
Studies conducted in the United States and Europe show that American women have 75 times more PBDEs in their breast milk than European women, said Bill Walker, West Coast spokesman for the Environmental Working Group.
Another study shows that levels of PBDE in fish in the San Francisco Bay have doubled since 1997.
The chemicals have already been taken off the market in Europe, Walker said. In the U.S., "chemicals are basically innocent until proven guilty.
"It's only years later that the negative health effects are discovered, and that is the case with these chemicals.'
One U.S. company, Great Lakes Chemical Corp., in Indiana, manufactures the PBDEs that lawmakers want banned, O'Toole said. The company is already phasing out production of the chemicals voluntarily, and the company will stop using the PBDEs by the end of 2004, O'Toole said.
"The goals of that bill seem to dovetail with what the industry is doing on a voluntary basis,' O'Toole said.