Flame retardants in our furniture, clothing, and electronics seem like a positive thing, right? Generally, no one wants their home or their clothes — or their kids’ clothes — to catch fire. Yet the Consumer Product Safety Commission had safety in mind when it voted yesterday to start rulemaking that could outlaw a new type of flame retardants from use on certain products. [More]
flame retardants
CPSC Inches Closer To Possible Ban On New And Potentially Dangerous Flame Retardants
By 9.21.17 — Updated: 9.22.17
Walmart Bans Potentially Harmful Flame Retardant
By 2.28.11
Following the lead of a handful of states, Walmart has decided to ban the use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a flame retardant found in hundreds of products ranging from furniture to textiles to electronics. [More]
IKEA Phasing Out Tris Flame Retardants From Furniture
By 6.22.10
A Slate reporter was bowled over by the pungent chemical aroma her new IKEA sofa emitted after she took of the package. She carved off a little piece of the mattress foam and sent it to a lab, which found it contained a funky flame retardant called “chlorinated tris.” This is interesting as brominated tris was banned from children’s sleepwear in 1977 after studies showed it was a skin-absorbable carcinogenic. [More]
