A well-known toxic chemical may lurk in everything from your easy chair to your baby’s bassinet—and manufacturers don’t have to tell you about it. The chemical is a flame retardant called “chlorinated Tris,” and it was used in children’s pajamas until 1977, when studies showed it caused cancer in animals. However, it’s turning up again with increasing frequency in upholstered furniture, car upholstery, paint, mattresses, and even baby carriers.
Chlorinated Tris is one of the three most common flame retardants, and it’s considered toxic by several national and international agencies, including the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identifies it as a cancer hazard and also warns that it triggers liver failure, anemia, skin and eye irritation, and reproductive and developmental problems in lab animals.
On one hand, the EPA labels chlorinated Tris as dangerous. On the other hand, an official program within the EPA called the High Production Volume Challenge, completely ignores the danger it presents. In fact, the Web site of the program, which is a registry of common chemicals, lists sixteen studies that conclude it’s not harmful to people. A close look at the studies, however, reveals that all except one are over twenty-five years old, and all were funded by chemical manufacturers.
Many believe the EPA gives too much weight to industry-funded studies and evaluations. For example, a senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, Richard Denison, has filed a complaint with the EPA, saying its description of chlorinated Tris is replete with “serious omissions and inaccurate and misleading conclusions.” Further, Denison said, “This unfortunate example negates any presumption that the EPA can rely on sponsors to have conducted a thorough and objective review of available data.” The response of the EPA is that companies are responsible for information they submit, and that any errors are therefore the responsibility of the company.
While chlorinated Tris is supposed to make products like furniture and mattresses safer by making them less flammable, many scientists believe the consumer only trades one danger for another. Arlene Blum, the scientist whose work led to taking the chemical out of kids’ pajamas in the 1970s, said, “We are going from one toxin to another with no requirement to tell people about the threats to their health and safety. It’s been more than 30 years and the chemical industry hasn’t bothered to come up with an alternative? We can’t do any better than this?”
No one knows how much chlorinated Tris is produced each year in the U.S. because manufacturers are not required to report their volume of production, although estimates range from 10 to 50 million pounds.
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