A team of researchers led by the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass. just published a study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology that shows that the levels of PBDEs—fire-retardant chemicals used in furniture, bedding, and other household items—are ten times higher in California households than in other areas of the country. Just as worrying, the study shows that California residents have twice the amount of PBDEs in their bloodstream than do people living elsewhere.
Why? The LA Times speculates that the high levels of PBDEs could be attributed to a law California passed 30 years ago requiring furniture and bedding to contain enough of the chemicals so that the items could resist ignition for 12 seconds if held to an open flame.
Writes the Times:
The research team, which also included scientists from UC Berkeley, Brown University in Rhode Island and Communities for a Better Environment, a California environmental activist group, collected samples from 49 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area cities of Richmond and Bolinas and 120 homes on Cape Cod and compared levels in those homes with published levels from Canada, Europe and several U.S. cities.
Levels in California homes were 10 times higher than those on Cape Cod, five times higher than those in Texas, six times higher than those in Washington, D.C., four times higher than those in Boston and 200 times higher than those in Europe, where the chemicals are used sparingly.
Perhaps it’s time to ditch your chemical mattress?
—Katie Flynn
