PHILADELPHIA—A commonly used flame retardant threatens
health and illustrates the need to reform U.S. toxic chemical policy, according
to a new report released today by PennEnvironment. In lab tests, scientists
have linked decabrominated diphenyl ether ("Deca")—a chemical
closely related to two flame retardants recently banned in California—to
health effects including neurological damage or permanent memory loss, and have
detected the chemical in the breast milk of American women at higher levels
than anywhere else in the world.
"The latest science clearly points to the need for
a federal ban of Deca and other toxic flame retardants," reports PennEnvironment's
Director, David Masur. "The U.S. should reassess its regulation of toxic
chemicals to ensure that this kind of widespread exposure does not happen in
the future."
PennEnvironment's report, entitled "Body
of Evidence," shows that toxic flame-retardants like Deca are widely
used in a variety of common consumer products, including in electronics and
electrical equipment, as well as in upholstery and other textiles. North American
industry used more than 49 million pounds in 2001—about half the world
market.
Deca and other toxic flame retardants escape from consumer
products into air and water and have been found in household dust and in the
food supply. The chemicals accumulate in the human body, pass from a mother
to a developing fetus, and have been found in human breast milk.
"I am appalled that this chemical has been found
in women's breast milk," commented Mariah Moore Khanna, a nursing mother
from Pittsburgh. "The government should require testing to find out if
a chemical is harmful before it is allowed to be put into products we use everyday."
Deca is one type of flame retardant called polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs.) Deca breaks down under sunlight and during metabolic
processes into the types of toxic flame-retardants, pentabrominated (Penta)
and octabrominated (Octa) diphenyl ethers, recently banned in California and
Europe. One manufacturer has agreed to voluntarily phase out all their production
of Penta to avoid human health consequences nationwide.
"The U.S. government should fix the way it regulates
toxic chemicals," said Masur. "We cannot continue to expose children
or adults to harmful chemicals like Deca while we wait for health impacts to
develop. Harmful chemicals shouldn't come onto the market in the first place."
The main U.S. law for chemicals regulation is the 1976
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Under TSCA, the EPA has the authority to
ban chemicals, but the Agency has not phased out any toxins since PCBs were
banned in 1976. This is due to the great burden of proof necessary for EPA to
take action to ban such chemicals. As a result, chemicals like Deca can be on
the market for decades before their threat to human health is discovered.
Industry's argument against regulation has centered on
the belief that Deca molecules were too big to be absorbed by people's bodies.
California's ban did not include Deca because the science was incomplete. However,
several recent groundbreaking studies summarized in PennEnvironment's report
found Deca in human blood and breast milk in the bodies of electronics workers
as well as in people who had not been exposed in the workplace.
PennEnvironment called on Congress and Pennsylvania's
state legislature to ban Deca and other PBDEs. In addition, PennEnvironment
advocated reform of toxic chemical regulation and efforts to protect human health
through extensive pre-market health effects testing and reductions in the use
of hazardous chemicals.
PennEnvironment is a statewide, non-partisan and non-profit
environmental advocacy organization.
