SACRAMENTO, CA—Assemblyman Mark Leno’s measure, AB 706, which would create an improved fire-safety standard that limits the use of toxic fire retardants in certain upholstered furniture and bedding products, passed the Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee today on a vote of 5 to 2.

“Every day, our children are breathing toxic fire retardant chemicals that have been linked to cancer, birth defects and reproductive difficulties,” said Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco).  “This bill creates a smarter and improved fire-safety standard for furniture while protecting our kids, co-workers, and others from potentially dangerous exposure to toxic chemicals.” 

Specifically, AB 706 would prohibit the use of brominated and chlorinated fire retardants in upholstered furniture as well as bedding products such as pillows, comforters, and mattresses.  It also would extend the Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation’s authority to take chemical exposure risks into consideration when setting furniture safety standards and require furniture labels to list chemicals used to achieve fire retardancy.

Halogenated chemicals such as brominated and chlorinated fire retardants are pervasive and persistent in the environment, virtually impossible for individuals to avoid exposure to, and increasingly present in humans.  Fire retardants such as PBDEs are 40 times greater in U.S. women’s’ breast milk than they were in the 1970s.  Mothers pass these chemicals on to their children during nursing.

California was the first state in the nation to ban pentaBDE and octaBDE in 2003 and 2004.  Other states followed suit, and Maine and Washington State are expected to ban decaBDE this year.   However, regulating one chemical at a time cannot sufficiently protect human health over the long term.

Biophysical chemist and visiting UC scholar Arlene Blum, who published articles in Science magazine in the 1970’s that contributed to the ban of two major flame retardants used in children’s sleepwear— brominated and chlorinated Tris, testified on behalf of the bill in committee. “Today, the same chlorinated Tris that was banned from children’s pajamas in the 1970’s is the second most used fire retardant in foam in furniture in California ,” Blum said.

The measure is co-sponsored by the Bluewater Network and Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS).   “Studies have shown that infants and toddlers have extremely high levels of these chemicals in their tiny bodies,” said Mary Brune, co-founder of MOMS.  “Exposing children to chemicals linked to developmental and behavioral problems is simply unacceptable, especially when safer alternatives are available.”