Protect Public Health:

Flame retardants are widely used in a variety of products to prevent and slow the spread of fire. While fire retardancy is important, some flame retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, used in electronic and other products are leaving a lasting toxic legacy in people and the environment. With cost-effective and equally fire-safe alternatives available, it’s time to phase out PBDEs.

• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are a class of flame retardant chemicals added to many consumer products found in the home, office, automobiles, and airplanes.
• The three mixtures used most widely are penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE.
• Commonly found in electronics, such as the plastic casings of TVs and computers, and used in some furniture foams, textiles, and kitchen appliances, industry voluntarily ended production in the United States of the formulations of penta and octa in 2004 after high levels were found in breast milk.
• Over fifty million pounds of the toxic flame retardant decaBDE continue to be built into TVs, mattresses, and other products annually in North America.
• DecaBDE is a developmental toxin and listed as possible human carcinogen.
• Many electronic companies have found safer substitutes and have phased out the use of PBDEs.The American Public Health Association and the International Association of Fire Fighters have recommended the phase out of toxic PBDE flame retardants.

ALASKA’S FLAME RETARDANTS AND TOXIC CHEMICALS BILL

• Phases out the manufacture and sale of products containing penta- and octa-BDEs by January 1, 2009.
• Phases out the manufacture and sale of electronic products, furniture, textiles, and mattresses containing deca-BDE by 2009. Allows continued use of deca-BDE in wire and cable and other applications.
• Exempts transportation vehicles; products or equipment for industrial and mining use; products or equipment used in a manufacturing process;electronic wiring; resold items; and items brought into the state before the effective date.
• Empowers Alaska State Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to ban other products containing flame retardants if it is determined that it is harmful to public health or the environment, and if reasonable safe alternatives exist.
• Requires several state departments to complete a review of the risks of PBDEs, possible alternatives, and the findings from other U.S. and European agencies. They will then prepare a report on their findings every two. years.
• Requires ADEC to develop a list of “chemicals of concern” that are persistent bioaccumulative toxics, including those that are cancer-causing, mutagenic, developmental or reproductive toxicants, neurotoxic, or endocrine disruptors... ADEC will then develop an action plan to reduce and phase out these products.

WHAT ARE TOXIC FLAME RETARDANTS?

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are a class of flame retardant chemicals added to many consumer products found in the home, office, automobiles, and airplanes. The three most common commercial classes of PBDEs are penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE. PBDEs are also part of a broader chemical class called polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (PHAHs) which include other highly toxic chemicals such as PCBs and dioxins. PBDEs are intrinsically hazardous because of their chemical characteristics: (1) they are stable, meaning that they are persistent in the environment and do not break down easily; (2) they are lipophilic, meaning that they accumulate in fatty tissues of living organisms; and (3) they have toxic properties, including the potential to act as endocrine disruptors. Their persistence and fat solubility allow them to both bio-magnify and bio-accumulate, meaning that they build up in the bodies of animals and humans...

Increasing Levels

PBDE levels are increasing at an exponential pace, as they are still largely unregulated in the U.S.

• Levels of PBDEs in U.S. women’s breast milk are 10-100 times higher than levels in European women.1,2
• Concentrations of PBDEs have increased over the years in marine mammals due to atmospheric transport and bioaccumulation.3
  

• Developmental Effects: Studies in laboratory animals indicate that neonatal exposure to PBDEs permanently damages learning and memory functions, impairs motor activity, and is linked to permanent behavioral aberrations and hyperactivity.4,5
• Reproductive Effects: PBDE exposures have been correlated with cryptorchidism, or undescended testes in new born boys,6 and permanent impairment of sperm development in laboratory animal studies.5 Exposures have also been associated with the delay of puberty in both male and female laboratory animals and alterations in sexual development and gender-specific sexual behavior.7
• Cancer: One study suggests that in utero exposure to PBDEs is associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer in men.8 The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) lists deca-BDE as a possible human carcinogen based on the development of liver tumors in laboratory animals.9
• Thyroid Problems: Recent animal studies have shown that PBDE exposure is linked to decreased circulating concentrations of thyroid hormone5 and to a decrease in thyroid weight in adult offspring.7

SAFER ALTERNATIVES ARE AVAILABLE

Alternatives to the use of PBDE flame retardants are available and cost effective. Alternatives include: product redesign to eliminate the need for added chemicals; use of alternative flame retardant materials such as plastics containing sulfur; and the use of less toxic chemicals such as red phosphorus, ammonium polyphosphate, and aluminum trihydroxide. Self-extinguishing plastics that do not need added flame retardants are now available such as polysulfone, polyaryletherketone, and polyethersulfone.

One commonly used phosphorus-based alternative to deca-BDE, resorcinol bid(diphenyl-phosphate) or RDP meets Underwriters Laboratories recommended fire safety standards for television components.

Many companies are taking the lead in using safer alternatives, including Apple, Dell, Xerox, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Sony, Panasonic, Phillips, and others. Here is what the leading companies are saying about eliminating deca-BDE in their products:

“All virgin plastics presently used by Sony are ‘deca-free’ (Decabromodyphenyl ether). These products meet all relevant fire safety standards.”
-Sony Electronics; March, 2006

“We currently avoid the use of BFRs (brominated flame retardants) by using plastics that can be flame retarded with non-halogenated compounds and by using design strategies that reduce the need to use flame retarded plastics at all.”
-Dell Computer Corporation; December 2005

“HP eliminated the use of two brominated flame retardants (BFRs) PBB and PBDE…HP has removed the remaining BFRs from the plastic housings of the vast majority of HP products.”
-HP; March 2006

“The use of PBDEs in mattresses today – which is limited already – will likely be voluntarily phased out entirely in the near future.”
-International Sleep Products Association; November 2003

References:

1. Schecter A, Pavuk M, Papke O, Ryan JJ et al.2003. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in U.S. mother’s milk. Environmental Health Perspectives 111(14): 1723-1729.
2. Mazdai A, et al. 2003. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in maternal and fetal blood samples, Environmental Health Perspectives 111(9): 1249-1252.
3. Ikonomou MG, Rayne S, Addision RF. 2002. Exponential increases of the brominated flame retardants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in the Canadian Arctic from 1981 to 2000. Environmental Science & Technology 36(6):1886-1892.
4. Eriksson P, Jakobsson E, Fredriksson A. 2001. Brominated flame retardants: A novel class of developmental neurotoxicants in our environment? Environmental Health Perspectives 109(9):903-908.
5. Kuriyama SN, Talsness CE, Grote K, Chahoud I. 2005. Developmental exposure to low-dose PBDE-99: Effects on male fertility and neurobehavior in rat offspring. Environmental Health Perspectives 13(2):149-154.
6. Main KM, Kivirant H, et al. Accepted for print, May 2007, to be published. Flame retardants in placenta and breast milk and cryptorchidism in newborn boys. Environmental Health Perspectives doi:10.1289/ehp.9924 Available: http://dx.doi.org/ [Accessed 31 May 2007].
7. Lilienthal, Hellmuth, et al. 2006. Effects of developmental exposure to 2,2’,4,4’,5-pentabromodiphenyl ether (PBDE-99) on sex steroids, sexual development, and sexually dimorphic behavior in rats. Environmental Health Perspectives 114(2):194-201.
8. Hardell L, van Bavel B, Lindström G, Eriksson M, Carlberg M. 2006. In utero exposure to persistent organic pollutants in relation to testicular cancer risk. International Journal of Andrology 29:228-234.
9. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 2004. Toxicological Profile for Polybrominated Biphenyls and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Available: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxpro2.html.

Take Action:

To write to the House Labor and Commerce Committee Click Here!

Please email Representative Kurt Olson

To write to your legislator Click Here!

To write a letter to the editor Click Here!

Please contact the Juneau Watchdog at if you have any questions or would like more information.