Keep the Ban on Flame Retardants
make your voice heard
By now, you have probably read a few of our articles mentioning flame retardants. Over the years they have ended up in a variety of products in an effort to make them safer, and not catch on fire. But, since then, we have learned a lot more about them… and it’s not good news.
Now we know that flame retardants don’t actually work as well as we all had hoped. If they delay a product from catching on fire, it’s only by a few seconds, and when they do start to burn they actually create thicker, more dangerous smoke (1). As a refresher, besides just the more intense smoke, flame retardants often easily escape from the products they are added to and get into our dust and onto our skin, where they are pretty readily absorbed. When they get into our bodies, they can cause problems like infertility, poor brain development in babies, low birth weight (which is bad in many ways for kids), and even cancers, just to name a few.
So, now, many groups are banning together to make their voices heard in an effort to get companies to remove flame retardants. Sometimes, that also requires that regulations shift, because there are laws on the books creating certain fire codes that often mean flame retardants are added to meet the requirements.
If you want safe products that are free from flame retardant chemicals, add your name to this petition. Your support will be sent to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission telling them we don’t want government officials to reverse the bans that have already been put in place to keep flame retardants out of products such as children’s products and furniture. We can do it if we all ban together!
(1) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flame-retardants-may-create-deadlier-fires/