US NGO report on “tris” flame retardants in children’s products building up momentum for the forthcoming 2012 Washington state bill to control TDCPP and TCEP
According to US Environmental Protection Agency data cited in the report, TDCPP is now one of the flame retardants most widely used in polyurethane foam. Its use has grown as that of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has declined.
Some laboratory studies have identified TCDPP and TCEP as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and harmful to the nervous and reproductive systems. The report author Ms Erika Schreder confessed that WSTC “knew very little about the toxicity of TCPP, except that it is structurally similar to TCEP and TCDPP and that it can leach out of the foam to which it has been applied”. But one of their major concerns is that these flame retardants are not chemically bound to product materials and are being found in household dust and air.
Release of the report coincides with opening of the 2012 Washington state legislative session and introduction of a bill that would bar the use of TDCPP and TCEP in children’s products and direct manufacturers to find safer alternatives. If passed, the bill would be the first in the US to ban use of TDCPP.
TDCPP was voluntarily withdrawn from use in children’s pyjamas in the US in the 1970s as a result of health concerns and California has recently added it to Proposition 65, the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer, but it is not legally restricted anywhere in the US. Yet according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a European Union assessment of TDCPP completed in 2008 “concluded that there were no concerns for consumers from potential inhalation or for children via the oral route.”
A New York state law prohibits the use of TCEP in products for children under three beginning 1 December 2013, but it is not restricted elsewhere in the US.
According to the Washington Toxics Coalition, a hearing for the Washington state bill has been scheduled for 17 January.
**********
This news item was sourced with the help of Chemical Watch.