Brominated and Chlorinated Organic Chemical Compounds Used as Flame Retardants
Author:
Meeting of the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (CECBP) Scientific Guidance Panel (SGP)
Date Published:
12/2008
Description:
In California, all upholstered furniture manufactured or sold in the State has to meet flammability standards specified in Technical Bulletin No. 117, promulgated by the Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation. California is the only state that has such a requirement. This regulation has resulted in extensive use of additive chemical flame retardants, particularly BFRs and CFRs, in furniture sold in California for over 25 years. To avoid the expense of having a separate product line for California and to voluntarily comply with the most stringent flammability requirements in the U.S., many large manufacturers and distributors of furniture or furniture components have had flame retardants added to their products sold in other states as well.
Prior to 2006, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were the primary additive flame retardants in furniture foam. These additive BFRs migrated from furniture into indoor and outdoor environments. Some of the highest PBDE concentrations in the world have been found in California homes and residents. Effective 2006, California became the first state in the nation to ban two PBDE mixtures, pentaBDEs and octaBDEs, because of concerns about the buildup of PBDEs in the bodies of Californians and their possible health effects. Commercial decaBDE which contains approximately three percent of nonaBDE, is banned in the European Union (EU) and in Washington and Maine.
Many of the BFRs and CFRs included in this document are marketed as substitutes for the banned PBDEs. Some of these substitute chemicals have already been found in house dust, indicating that they are being released from products. These chemicals persist in the environment and many have been found to be bioaccumulative. In addition to the PBDE replacements, other BFRs and CFRs that are used as flame retardants in a wide of variety of products. Brominated and Chlorinated Organic Chemical Compounds Used as Flame Retardants originally available at http://oehha.ca.gov/multimedia/biomon/pdf/120408flamedoc.pdf, last accessed July 15, 2015.
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