Is Fire Retardant A Harmful Toxin? PBDEs, Deca BDE, PCBs ... CBS News correspondent Wyatt s May 19, 2008

[Guest guest]

Is

Fire Retardant A Harmful Toxin? Exclusive: Scientists, Lawmakers Raise Red

Flags About Fire-Retardant Compound In Everyday Goods

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 CBS) For decades, Americans have depended

on special chemicals to protect them from fire. But now, there are serious

questions about the safety of those chemicals. Two states have already banned

them, and six more are considering it. CBS

News correspondent Wyatt s has this exclusive report. She grew up on an island off the coast of

Maine , but

when Hannah Pingree had her blood tested, she found 19 different flame

retardant chemicals in her system.

"It makes me angry that I could have a child in the next couple of years

who would be impacted by these chemicals in my body," Pingree said.

"And so if you live out here … do we all have it?" CBS News correspondent Wyatt s asked.

"If I have it, you have it, we all have it," Pingree said.

We all have it, because for 30 years, flame-retardant chemicals - hundreds of

millions of pounds of them - have been embedded in furniture and consumer

products, in an effort to slow down fires and reduce deaths and injuries.

But scientists are now raising red flags about the widely used brominated flame

retardants, called PBDE's.

"I am concerned about developing children, concerned about exposure before

you are born," said Birnbaum, a senior toxicologist at the EPA. She

is concerned because PBDEs cause the kind of health effects in young animals

that are warning signs for infant humans.

"They can affect the developing brain and they can affect the developing

reproductive system," she said. "There is very limited evidence

whether or not they can cause cancer."

"This is concentrating in human beings, just like PCBs," said

Maine state toxicologist

Deborah Rice, a former EPA scientist.

She once studied PCBs, toxic chemicals banned in the 1970s. She now compares

them to the chemical Deca, the one PBDE still produced in

America .

"I concluded that Deca was toxic," she said.

"Did you come away believing these chemicals are capable of causing brain

damage?" s asked.

"Yes they absolutely are," she replied.

Unlike other industrial chemicals, brominated flame retardants build up in the

human body. These chemicals are in our furniture, cars, children's products,

electronics and even our food. And most of what we absorb does not go away.

"And we think the time for a ban is now," Pingree said.

As young as she appears, Hannah Pingree is the House Majority Leader in the

Maine legislature, which

last year voted to phase out Deca. She was alarmed by evidence PBDEs are found

in polar bears, in eagles and in human breast milk, where they pass from mother

to child.

"They come into our bodies, they build up in our fat tissue," Pingree

said. "They are in the natural environment and they are very, very

difficult to get rid of."

In a report to be released Tuesday, Long of the environmental group Friends of the Earth

documents how products like this car seat can contain up to 9 percent bromine,

which might explain why Americans have 10 times more of these chemicals than

anyone on earth.

"These are ridiculous amounts of fire retardants to be putting into car

seats when there are perfectly safe ways of getting fire safety without the

chemical use," Long said.

The bromine industry, which declined our requests for an on camera interview,

has stressed in ad campaigns, that its chemicals are necessary to save lives...

"We can't take a chance on fire safety," one says.

In a statement, one manufacturer, the Chemtura Corporation, says hundreds of

studies have "concluded that Deca BDE was safe for continued use."

The industry argues there is no conclusive proof of harm to humans.

"To sit around and wait for the chemical industry to admit there was a

problem would be waiting too long," Pingree said.

The EPA is completing a safety review of Deca, and six more states are

considering bans. The question is whether Deca's ability to slow down fire is

now outweighed by evidence it's toxic to animals, and showing up in humans.

No virus found in this outgoing message.

Checked by AVG.

Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.20/1453 - Release Date: 5/18/2008 9:31 AM