Changing upholstery for flame-retardant-free versions sees concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the bloodstream drop by half in under a year and a half.
A new study into the effects of the Californian flammability standards – which saw upholstery made from 1970-2014 resist open flames – found that those that swapped saw their blood concentrations of PBDEs drop by half in 1.4 years.
Due to the overall declining use of these chemicals, levels in participants who did not replace furniture dropped as well, but two to four times more slowly, according to the study by California Department of Public Health, California Environmental Protection Agency, UC Davis, Silent Spring Institute, Green Science Policy Institute, Environmental Working Group, and Sequoia Foundation. Funding came from Healthy Babies Bright Futures, the JPB Foundation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The study has just been published in Environmental Pollution.
‘This study shows that the update to California’s flammability standard not only changed what goes into furniture: it changed what goes into people’s bodies,’ says Kathleen Attfield, the study’s co-lead author and a research scientist supervisor at the California Department of Public Health. ‘Through biomonitoring, we can assess how policy changes and consumer choices can work together to lower exposures to toxic chemicals.’
‘This study shows that the update to California’s flammability standard not only changed what goes into furniture: it changed what goes into people’s bodies,’ says Kathleen Attfield, the study’s co-lead author and a research scientist supervisor at the California Department of Public Health.
‘Through biomonitoring, we can assess how policy changes and consumer choices can work together to lower exposures to toxic chemicals.’
Upholstered furniture made between 1970 and 2014 is likely to contain flame retardants because California’s open-flame flammability standard, Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117), in effect necessitated it. Due to California’s market size, this was a de facto national standard. In 2012 then Governor Jerry Brown called for a new furniture standard that required upholstered products to resist smouldering fires, but not open flames, which removed the need for chemical flame retardants. This standard (TB117-2013) became mandatory for new furniture manufactured after 1 January 2015.
The study also measured organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), a class of PBDE replacements also used to meet the old standard, but found these chemicals did not follow the same trend: likely because these chemicals are harder to track over time, according to the study. In addition, people could also be exposed to OPFRs that continue to be used in other products like vehicles and electronics. The authors expressed concern about these uses, as OPFRs are also linked to neurodevelopmental and other harms.
Other ways to reduce flame retardant exposure centre around dust and include washing hands often, especially before preparing or eating food, reducing dust levels in homes with wet cloths, and using a vacuum cleaner with a high efficiency particulate air filter.
