Toxic couches are one species we can’t wait to see go extinct.
Today, Governor Jerry Brown’s Administration announced a change in California regulations that allows the sale of toxic-free furniture. In other words, furniture manufacturers can now make couches without adding several pounds of dangerous, carcinogenic flame retardant chemicals.
(See the statement from the Alliance for Toxic-Free Fire Safety here).
California’s previous fire safety regulations essentially required furniture manufacturers to add toxic flame retardant chemicals to upholstered furniture in the name of fire safety. Studies show that these chemicals migrate from the foam in the furniture into household dust and into our bodies. As a result, our state’s children have some of the highest levels of toxic flame retardants in their bodies in the world. Studies have linked exposure to these chemicals to increased risk of cancer, neurological deficits, developmental problems and impaired fertility.
The California League of Conservation Voters worked for many years with other advocates for Californians’ health and environment in supporting legislation that would ban the use of these chemicals. The chemical industry spent millions to defeat those bills. (As we now know, thanks to an investigative series by the Chicago Tribune, the chemical industry has used deceptive tactics including phony paid “experts” to testify in legislative hearings and perpetuate the lie that these chemicals were necessary to protect the public.)
In response, advocates including numerous groups in the Alliance for Toxic-Free Fire Safety coalition, changed our tactics and worked on changing the regulation itself. Meanwhile, investigative reporters uncovered the decades of lies by the chemical makers.
Thanks to supporters like you, Governor Brown and his staff heard us – all of us! Starting on January 1 next year, furniture manufacturers will no longer be required to use these hazardous chemicals. In addition, the revised regulations could also mean flame-retardant chemicals will be taken out of a number of children’s products (think nursing pillows, swings, and strollers). We can expect this change to have a huge impact on consumer products manufactured around the country.
Governor Jerry Brown has reversed a controversial law he signed into existence during his first stint as governor, back in 1975.
The obscure-sounding “Technical Bulletin 117″, or TB 117, effectively required furniture manufacturers to inject flame-retardant chemicals into all upholstered furniture sold in the state.
As California’s law became a de facto national standard, a typical sofa would hit the market with two to three pounds of chemicals that can cause cancer and reproductive problems.
“It’s wonderful, after years of work, to see this become a reality” said Arlene Blum, a visiting scholar in chemistry at the University of California Berkeley and director of the Green Science Policy Institute.
“I was practically screaming with happiness,” said Blum, who’s been working on the flame retardant issue since the 1970s.
The new law, called &ldldquo;TB 117-2013″ doesn’t forbid furniture manufacturers to use the chemicals. Instead, it sets a new flammability test — known as a “smolder test — that furniture makers can meet without using the flame-retardant chemicals.
In place of the chemicals, manufacturers can line furniture with a fire shield, or use flame-retardant fabrics, which do not emit toxic gases.
The truth is, the pervasive use of these chemicals has never been proven to save lives, has made home fires more dangerous for victims and for firefighters, and has put millions of people who will never encounter a fire in their home at risk–particularly young children.
This announcement comes on the heels of the passage of a new law we supported (AB 127, Skinner) that will reduce similar kinds of chemicals in our buildings. Now we can finally say that California is leading the way, as we do on so many environmental issues, in stopping the use of toxic and ineffective flame retardants chemicals. We stood up to the chemical industry with the support of thousands of grassroots advocates who contacted the governor over the past year, and we won. Thank you!
(And if you want to learn more about the history of the chemical industry’s deceptive campaign to keep these chemicals in our products, watch “Toxic Hot Seat,” a movie that will premiere on HBO next week: www.toxichotseatmovie.com/).
