PBDE Flame Retardant in Furniture Causes Concern
AP 30jan02

A chemical flame retardant used in foam furniture padding is accumulating so rapidly in the breast milk of nursing mothers that environmentalists and some scientists are expressing concern, and Europe has moved to ban one form of it.

Little is known about the toxic nature of the chemical, polybrominated diphenyl ether, commonly known as PBDE. Early studies show it poses some of the same dangers as PCB's and DDT, two chemicals that were banned in the United States for their detrimental health effects.
One form of PBDE will be banned next year in Europe, where new chemical agents must be proved safe before they can be used. United States law requires proof of harm or risk before a chemical is banned.

The chemical industry argues that more research is needed before banning something that protects lives. Producers of PBDE say there is no evidence that it will ever reach harmful levels.
Adding PBDE to foam furniture padding, television casings and other plastics reduces by 45 percent the risk of death and injury from fire, the chemical manufacturers say.
"We're not talking about aesthetics," said Robert Campbell, a spokesman for the Great Lakes Chemical Corporation in West Lafayette, Ind. "People use brominated flame retardants because they save lives."

Like PCB's and DDT, PBDE is a persistent organic pollutant, meaning it can remain in the environment for years without breaking down. Some of these pollutants have such an affinity for fat that they build up in the bodies of humans and other animals from before birth until death.
"It seems that PBDE's are an important, but generally unrecognized, persistent organic pollutant," Robert C. Hale, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and five colleagues wrote in the journal Nature a few months ago.

Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: "There is an enormous need to act quickly when there is a problem with a chemical that is not only toxic but is persistent and accumulates."

Industry uses several forms of PBDE to decrease the flammability of various plastics. Only one form used mostly in polyurethane foam furniture padding has been found in the environment and breast milk. Environmental Protection Agency records show that Great Lakes Chemical is the only domestic manufacturer of that form of PBDE.

Professor Hale, who stops short of calling for a ban on the chemical, has hypothesized that discarded furniture is a major source of PBDE in the environment. Whenever anybody tosses out an old sofa, he explained, nature goes to work. Water and sunlight break the foam into crumbling pieces that are eventually ground to dust. Insects have been observed munching at the material. From there, the chemical travels up the food chain to humans.
Professor Hale has found PBDE's virtually everywhere he has looked; in a small river along the North Carolina-Virginia border, he found fish with the highest levels of PBDE ever recorded in an animal. He has also collected sewage sludge samples from four states; each sample has high concentrations of PBDE.

In 1998, Swedish scientists reported that levels of PBDE in breast milk had increased 40-fold since 1972.

Users of PBDE could substitute another flame-retardant chemical in its place. But PBDE has properties other flame retardants do not, Mr. Campbell, the Great Lakes Chemical spokesman, said. It does not discolor foam or decrease its durability as much as other flame retardants do. And though all flame retardants evaporate into room air in trace amounts, PBDE does so at lower levels than many alternatives.