Vermont passes flame retardant ban

The Vermont legislature passed a ban on toxic flame retardants Friday, just before the legislature adjourned for the year.

The bill bans brominated flame retardants including a controversial and dangerous subclass called PBDEs.

Although there was a powerful chemical industry lobby against the ban, the fact that these chemicals are a danger to human health is not disputed by the government.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s own Web site spells out the risk PBDEs pose to us through everyday exposure:

There is growing evidence that PBDEs persist in the environment and accumulate in living organisms, as well as toxicological testing that indicates these chemicals may cause liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity. Environmental monitoring programs in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Arctic have found traces of several PBDEs in human breast milk, fish, aquatic birds, and elsewhere in the environment. ... The mechanisms or pathways through which PBDEs get into the environment and humans are not known yet, but could include releases from manufacturing or processing of the chemicals into products like plastics or textiles, aging and wear of the end consumer products, and direct exposure during use (e.g., from furniture).

A chemistry industry front group innocuously called Citizens for Fire Safety pushed hard to fight Vermont’s ban. The group went so far as to organize robo calls to voters, inviting them to join a conference call with the a former Minnesota Fire Marshal Thomas Brace. Brace told those who joined the call that the bill was unsafe, as there were no proven alternatives to these toxic flame retardants.

This claim is completely untrue. Washington State passed a ban on PBDEs in 2007 but the ban was contingent on finding an effective and safe alternative. Just recently the state’s fire safety committee and fire marshal announced they had found a safe replacement and now the ban is set to get into effect in 2011. Maine also passed a ban on deca flame retardants in 2007.