A 30-Year Corporate Conspiracy To Poison Our Furniture

Right now, you may be sitting on about two pounds of poison: the fire retardant chemicals in your chair. The same chemicals are in your computer, carpet padding, bed and house dust. These toxins, linked to cancer and other health problems, continuously escape from our furniture and pollute our indoor environment. They’re a toxic scam. They don’t prevent or slow fires. They’re mainly poisonous money-makers for big corporations.

Tobacco Company Diversion

Our widespread use of toxic fire retardant chemicals originates with the tobacco companies, according to a revealing report by The Chicago Tribune.

Decades ago, cigarette makers were under pressure to create safer cigarettes that wouldn’t incinerate smokers when they fell asleep while smoking in bed or stretched out on the sofa. But these companies decided a safer cigarette would cost too much to make. Instead of coming up with a fireproof cigarette, they cooked up the idea of lobbying for so-called fire “retardants” to be added to furniture that would supposedly keep lit cigarettes from starting house fires.

Of course, they couldn’t openly admit they were trying to weasel out of making safer products. So, instead, the tobacco companies secretly helped organize the National Association of State Fire Marshals and manipulated the group into pushing for Federal rules mandating the addition of flame retardant chemicals to household furniture.

Chemical Company Profits

Later on, big chemical companies, realizing the profit potential of producing and selling chemicals to be added to everyone’s furniture, backed the formation of a group called Citizens for Fire Safety that also advocated the wide use of fire retardants. This group trumpets the fact that it is made up of “… fire professionals, educators, community activists, burn centers, doctors, fire departments and industry leaders.”

In fact, Citizens for Fire Safety is a front for three chemical companies: Chemtura, Albemarle and ICL Industrial Products.

As part of the underhanded campaign to promote the necessity of fire retardants, at least one burn doctor has testified before regulators about the lifesaving properties of fire retardants. The only problem is, a close look at his testimony shows that much of it is just fiction. It’s hard not to believe that his point of view has been influenced by the group that pays him: Citizens for Fire Safety.

Worse Living Through Chemistry

The health and environmental effects of flame retardants have been widely researched:

• Research at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom finds that flame retardants increase the danger of invisible toxic gases that are the primary cause of death in fires. The study showed that the chemicals increased the “amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide released during combustion.”
• Lab tests show that flame retardants may increase the risk of autism, learning deficits and memory problems. According to scientists at the University of California Davis, “… exposure to flame retardants presents an independent risk of neurodevelopmental deficits associated with reduced sociability and learning.”
• Compounds used in flame retardant products are showing up in the environment at increasing concentrations, according to studies at Indiana University Bloomington. The researchers conclude “… the environmental concentrations of these compounds are increasing rather rapidly.” At the same time, scientists at Baylor University have discovered that these chemicals cause malformations in wildlife, cause changes in animal behavior and can be lethal because they disrupt thyroid function.
• American babies are born with significantly higher levels of flame retardant chemicals in their blood compared to babies born in other countries. And research on pregnant women in Northern California shows that they have the highest exposure to flame retardant chemicals ever measured. This is particularly worrisome, since these toxins interfere with thyroid hormones that are critical to fetal brain development.

Widespread Toxins

Even if the production of flame retardants were stopped today, these chemicals would still present a hazard to humans and the environment.  Children are especially susceptible to harm, since the toxins leach into house dust which youngsters inhale and swallow when they crawl across the floor. It’s time to demand that chemical companies stop poisoning us with flame retardants. You can contact the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and ask why it hasn’t done something about this problem.