1. The Fire Retardant Dilemma
All Images, Copyright 2008, Arlene Blum 1 1

2. Fire Prevention is in Everyone's Interest

3. Flame Retardants, Health, and Environment
To achieve fire safety, flame retardant chemicals are added to products.
Brominated and chlorinated flame retardant chemicals are often associated with health and environmental hazards.
Some flammability standards, promoted by special interests, are not needed for fire safety.
Other necessary flammability standards can be met by safer alternative chemicals and/or product redesign.

4. Halogenated Fire Retardants contain bromine or chlorine and carbon:
Uses (in order, by volume in the U. S.)
Electronics
Insulation in Buildings
Polyurethane foam
Wire and cable

5. Most halogenated FRs are PBT’s Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxic Many are CMR’s Carcinogens Mutagens Reproductive Toxins

6. China Is a Growing User and Producer of Flame Retardants
Starting July 1, 2008 the Fire Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security requires flame-retarding on products in public places
The market share for the more toxic halogenated flame retardants chemicals is about 20% in the EU and U.S. and about 55% in China
Production Capacity of Flame Retardants in China
Guo Ruxin. Development situation of flame retardants. Sea- Lake Salt and Chemical Industry, 1998, 28(1): 43-44
Liang Cheng. Development trend and production situation of fire retardant in China. New Chemical Materials, 2001, 29(8): 5-8, in Chinese.
Production situation and development trend of fire retardant. China Petroleum and Chemical Industry, 2003, 9: 22-26, in Chinese.

7. Fourth International Flame-retarding Exhibition Shanghai - September 2008
Flame-retarding textile, fiber, decoration material, carpet, blankets, and fabric
Flame-retarding; lumber, decoration board, soft foam/hard foam of polyurethane
Flame-retarding/fire proof coating, plastic of flame-retarding engineering,
Flame-retarding wire cable and insulation material,
Three previous International flame-retarding exhibitions attracted nearly four million
The Fire Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security requirement on products in public places will bring a bright prospect to China’s flame-retarding industry.

8. Brominated Tris Flame Retardant Tris (2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate
Used to treat U.S. children’s sleepwear from 1975 to 1977.
Up to 10% of the weight of fabric
Not covalently bonded to fabric
Absorbed in children’s bodies; metabolite found in their urine

9. Science, January 7, 1977 9 9

10. CPSC Bans TRIS-Treated Children's Garments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 1977 10 10

11. Flame Retardants in U. S. Consumer Products
Use in furniture and baby products foam driven by California’s Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117)
Limited fire safety benefit
Halogenated fire retardants such as chlorinated tris at levels of 3% or more in furniture & baby products manufactured in China for export to U.S.

12. PentaBDE used from 1980 to 2004 in the U. S
PentaBDE used from 1980 to 2004 in the U.S. Most global use of pentaBDE was in North America. Chemical fire retardants delay but do not stop ignition.
Kielhorn, Dr. J., and Dr. C. Melber, Environmental Health Criteria 205: Polybrominated Dibenzo-p- dioxins and Dibenzofurans. WHO (International Programme on Chemical Safety); Geneva, 1998.
On the combustion and photolytic degradation products of some brominated flame retardants, Gunilla Söderström, University of Umea, Sweden 12 12 12

13. Major Flame Retardant Exposure Pathways
Myrto’s slide
Breast milk – major source for infants (breast milk levels correlate with dust levels – Wu, 2007)
Meat, dairy, fish – food pathways (lipophilic), but indoor air/dust – major contributors to exposure (Birnbaum 2006, Schecter 2006, 2004, Wu 2007, Lorber,2008) – high binding affinity for particles
Levels in CA marine fish much higher than marine fish from Canada, Europe, Japan (Brown, et al., Chemosphere 2006)
E-waste – – 500 million computers discarded in US
CA Integrated Waste Management Bd – Nov 2001 Baseline Study 13

14. Human Exposure
Flame retardants used in consumer products are found in house dust
Stapleton, H. M., J. G. Allen, S. M. Kelly, A. Konstantinov, S. Klosterhaus, D. Watkins, M. D. McClean, and T. F. Webster Alternate and new brominated flame retardants detected in U.S. house dust. Environ Sci Technol 42 (18):
Toddlers have three times the levels of their mothers
Californians have higher levels in their house dust and body fluids than residents of other states Kellyn S. Betts, Environmental Health Perspectives 116, A , 2008
PBDE fire retardant concentration in household dust
ng/g
Source: Elevated House Dust and Serum Concentrations of PBDEs in California: Unintended Consequences of Furniture Flammability Standards? Zota, Ami R., Rudel, Ruthann A., Morello-Frosch, Rachel A., and Brody, Julia Green, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008,  /es801792z

15. August, 2003 California Bans Penta and Octa-BDE
November, 2003
Great Lakes Chemical Co. agrees to cease Penta production.
Replacements: Firemaster 550
Chlorinated Tris 15 15

16. Where should all the PBDE furniture go?
My couch was 5 percent toxic PBDEs.
Do Californians have a time bomb of mutagen, carcinogens, neurological and reproductive impacts from the furniture in their homes?
Where should all the PBDE furniture go? 18 18

17. Widespread Environmental Impacts
Brominated Flame Retardants in the Arctic
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) and Arctic Council Action Plan to Eliminate Pollution of the Arctic (ACAP): Jan 2005
Chlorinated, brominated, and perfluorinated compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace elements in livers of sea otters
Kannan K, et al.
J Environ Monit Apr;10(4):552-8.
Bioaccumulation and biotransformation of 61 polychlorinated biphenyl and four polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners in juvenile American kestrels.
Drouillard KG, et al.
Environ Toxicol Chem Feb;26(2):
Fireproof killer whales (Orcinus orca): flame retardant chemicals and the conservation imperative in the charismatic icon of British
Columbia, Canada Peter S. Ross
Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 63: 224–234 (2006)
Persistent pollutants in nine species of deep-sea cephalopods Unger, M.A. et al., Mar. Pollut. Bull.
(2008), doi: /j.marpolbul
Brominated Fire retardants found in Tasmanian devils The Australian, January 22, 2008

18. A PBDE Exposure ‘‘Time Bomb’’
Current exposure to PentaBDE: 80% indoor air and dust, 20% diet.
Penta is ‘‘bleeding’’ into the outdoor environment.
Owing to its persistence, it will amplify in food chains.
Our main exposure route likely to shift from indoor air and dust to diet.
Critical needs: (a) reduce the existing indoor reservoir (b) manage the end-of-life.
Harrad and Diamond, Exposure to to PBDEs and PCBs: current and future scenarios, 2006 Atmospheric Environment

19. The legacy PBDE problem: Capture indoor reservoir and manage end of life
Step 1: Identify
Step 2: Remove
Step 3: Disposal
_____
Burn
Landfill
-Degradation by bacteria?
Research needed for end of life solutions
_______
Dr. Hee-Joo Kim in the Bruce lab has recently developed a dipstick immunoassay for BDE-47 using the BDE-47 antibody and a novel reagent phage peptide.
Some regulators or public concerning the occurrence of BDE-47 banned in furniture foam can easily perform the assay within 1 hour after simple extraction and immediately check positive or negative result with naked eyes.
This phage-peptide-involved immunoassay is remarkably upgraded from current hapten-based competitive immunoassay for BDE-47.
 Please see pictures below showing the occurrence of BDE-47 in furniture form samples supplied from you. The occurrence of BDE-47 in furniture foam samples only developed the dark circles on the dipstick strip.
Ki-Chang told me that one slide for the dipstick assay should be OK. So I
send you just one slide which shows the result of blind test with the
extracts of furniture foams.
In the slide, the PHAIA refers to the phage anti-immunocomplex assay which
is a non competitive sandwich type assay. Unlike competitive assay, this
non competitive assay is very useful for on-site rapid screening. The
attached slike show the comparison of two assays (96-well based assay Vs.
dipstick assay) for the extracts of six furniture forms. The positive
detections by the 96 well-based assay (PHAIA) show the black spots on the
membrane strips for the same sample.
Dipstick immunoassay for BDE-47 developed by Hee-Joo Kim,
Bruce Hammock and team.
(can perform the assay with BDE-47 antibody and novel reagent phage peptide within 1 hour after simple extraction ) .

20. What we can do now: What about Yucca Mountain?

21. Solutions
Only use fire retardant chemicals when a fire safety need is established.
Fire retardants slow fires. Alternative strategies can prevent or stop them.

22. Fire Safety Without Toxic Chemicals
Preventing ignition is less expensive, more effective, and healthier than adding toxics to slow ignition
Fire deaths in the US are rapidly declining due to:
50% decrease in cigarette consumption since 1980
Enforcement of improved building, fire and electrical codes
Increased use of sprinklers and smoke detectors
Introduction of fire-safe cigarettes and candles

23. U.S. Home Fire Deaths, 25

24. Decline in Fire Deaths 2000-2004 compared to 1980-1984
California
- 40%
Georgia
- 36%
Illinois
- 45%
Michigan
- 38%
New York
- 48%
Ohio
- 41%
Pennsylvania
Texas
- 37%
“U.S. UNINTENTIONAL FIRE DEATH RATES BY STATE” John Hall, NFPA, December, 2008
Table 1. Unintentional Fire, Flame or Smoke Deaths, by State, (5 year averages)
States shown are those with the highest number of fire deaths in
Note: Airplane post-crash fires and in-flight fires are not included, nor is the New York social club fire
of 1989 (possibly treated as homicide by fire), the Oklahoma City office building bombing, or the World Trade Center
collapse (fire caused collapse, which was the proximate cause of death).
Source: National Center for Health Statistics mortality data sorted by International Classification of Diseases codes, as
sorted and analyzed by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ( ) and National Safety Council (1999-
2004). Deaths included are those coded E890-E899 ( ) and X00-X09 ( ). Figures do not include
codes F63.1 (pathological fire setting) and W39 (fireworks discharge), which would add less than 1% to the total each
year. Figures do not include codes X76 and X97 (suicide or homicide by smoke, fire of flames), which would add
about 9% to the total each year. These four codes are included in state-by-state analyses by the U.S. Fire
Administration. Figures do not include fire deaths in vehicles, which would add about 20% to the expanded total (with
X76 and X97) each year.
“US Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State”
National Fire Protection Association, 2008 26

25. No Data to show a Reduction in Fire Deaths from Retardants in Furniture Foam in California
“U.S. fire data is not detailed or complete enough to show whether adding fire retardant chemicals to furniture foam in California since 1980 has made a measurable difference in fire deaths in that state.”
Marty Ahrens, Fire Analysis Services, NFPA

26. NFPA estimates 750 lives/year saved by fire-safe cigarettes
On October 25, 2007, Reynolds American Inc. announced product-wide switch to fire-safe cigarettes
Jim Shannon, NFPA’s president, said in an “If cigarette manufacturers had begun producing only fire-safe cigarettes 20 years ago an estimated 15,000 lives could have been saved by now.”
NFPA press release
RJReynolds Tobacco Co, (35% of the market) is phasing in RIP cigarettes for all it’s brands with full distribution within two years. Phillip Morris will follow suit. Merit are already fire safe in every state. Fire safe since 2001.
All US cigarettes fire safe withiin two years. 28

27. Should we fire retard: Electronics housings? Insulation?
Bed coverings?
Children’s products?
Furniture foam

28. International Electrotechnical Commission
         
International Electrotechnical Commission
Worldwide electronics industry standards would have required plastic enclosures for consumer electronics to resist external candle ignition
-proposed in 2002
-an estimated additional 1.7 billion pounds of fire retardant chemicals would be required annually
Candle fires in computers and other consumer electronic enclosures pose a negligible hazard

29. Case against Candle Resistant Electronics

30. Firefighters oppose adding halogenated fire retardants to electronic housings
Firefighters have significantly elevated rates of multiple myeloma, non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate, and testicular cancer.
These four types of cancer can be related to exposure to dioxins and/or furans.
G.K. LeMasters, et al, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 48(11): (2006).

31. Conformity, January 2009

32. Halogenated Fire Retardants are used in Insulation materials
Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) is in all polystyrene insulation,
On the first EU list of sixteen “Substances of Very High Concern”.
Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic (PBT)
Found in household dust, breast milk, sewage sludge
Used to insulate cement foundations from soil. No fire hazard
Slows fires by second and then burns to produce toxic brominated dioxins

33. No fire hazard has been demonstrated for these baby products
Baby Products Can Contain Fire Retardants
Brestfriend said that the chemical in its nursing pillow wasn't a PBDE. It was Albemarle Antiblaze V6 and perfectly safe.  A V6 is 2,2-Bis(Chloromethyl) Trimethylene Bis(Bis(2-Chloroethyl) Phosphate) It’s 37% chlorine.
Graco baby stroller with 3% TDCP or chlorinated Tris in the foam found within the padding. 
No fire hazard has been demonstrated for these baby products

34. In December 2007 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed a national furniture flammability standard that can be met without fire retardant chemicals in foam.
“No one wants to trade fire risks for chemical toxicity risks." 
CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore

35. Would you like more information?
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36. Ppts from meeting at: 41 41 41