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Quotes about Flame Retardants from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"You can green your home as best you can, eat organic, avoid dry cleaning the clothes, throw out the solvents, and buy bedding sans flame retardants, but can you find that hallowed ground far from the chemical-driven American industrial machine? It is difficult to locate that halcyon land where toxic waste sites, nasty landfills, dry-cleaner TCE spills, and PCB-laced soil don't linger nearby—which is part of the reason why it is so hard to prove cause and effect between toxic waste and any disease cluster." - Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic (Get the book.) "These chemicals included pesticides, phthalates, dioxins, flame retardants, and breakdown chemicals of Teflon, among other chemicals known to damage the immune system. Shortly after, investigators in the Netherlands turned up similar findings: they discovered an array of chemicals commonly found in household cleaners, cosmetics, and furniture in the cord blood of thirty newborns. OUR AUTOGEN-FILLED WORLD: HOW DID WE BECOME SO CONTAMINATED? How do these chemicals creep into our bodies?" - Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic (Get the book.) "Starting in the 1970s, consumer protection laws were put in place to treat all polymer products with flame retardants. PBDEs began to be used liberally in manufactured goods as the chemical industry's insurance policy that your furniture, bedding, pajamas, and carpet—all of which are highly flammable—would not go up in a burst of flame if there happened to be an electrical short while you slept or if you should mistakenly knock over a candle while doing your crossword puzzle in bed. But PBDEs had their own downside." - Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic (Get the book.)

"The new law also bans persistent organic pollutants and other persistent chemicals like lead, and requires the phasing out of chlorinated paraffins, such as plasticizers and flame retardants. Swedish companies were given five years, until [_], to test the estimated 2,500 chemicals used in quantities over 1,000 tons per year for such effects. By 2010, chemicals used in lesser amounts will also have to be tested. Safety Regulations in Other Countries In China, the first regulations on cosmetics and personal care products were issued in 2002, banning approximately 400 ingredients." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"A Room with a Fume Carpets, fabrics, and upholstery are prime spots for toxins, due to the flame retardants and solvents. Make it a goal to think about replacing these over time with products that are not made with chemicals. I recommend starting with flooring because carpeting in particular is a magnet for dust and toxic chemicals roaming elsewhere in the household and that land on the floor eventually. This includes household pesticide residues and cleaning agents—even if they were not originally applied to the carpet." - Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps (Get the book.)

"We sleep on mattresses treated with bioaccumulative flame retardants and scrub our kitchens—and our faces—with irritating chemicals. We're inundating ourselves with toxins twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and most of the time we don't even know it! So what, you might be asking, does any of this have to do with raising a child? The answer is absolutely everything. Over the past thirty years, these changes in our lifestyle, diet, and environment have taken a dramatic—and tragic—toll on our children's health. We're seeing epidemic levels of diabetes and obesity." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.) "Obviously, you don't want to be on an airplane that hasn't been treated with flame retardants, should there be a fire. On the other hand, maybe there's a better product that serves the same purpose, without the same potential health impacts. And I think that's the direction that we have to be going in: pushing for alternatives in the marketplace that provide the same service but don't have the same chemical and health properties." And the marketplace might in fact be moving in this direction." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.) "These included perfluorochemicals, or PFCs (found in some stain and oil repellants); flame retardants used in the manufacturing of furniture foam, computers, televisions, and kids'furniture; metals (lead, mercury, arsenic, much of which enters the environment through burning coal, gasoline, and garbage), and chlorinated dioxins." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.)

"Airline seats and airplane plastic and fabric interiors are drenched in flame retardants to meet safety standards. Add to these exposures the ones from your footwear, the insulation in your walls, and the plastic in your computer, video monitor, BlackBerry, and TV. All these have been made with plastics or furniture parts soaked in and manufactured with PBDEs. In the 1950s, during the heyday of the American industrial revolution, a singular new invention, polyurethane, began beefing up manufacturing profit margins as it scaled up the comfort level of the American home." - Donna Jackson Nakazawa, The Autoimmune Epidemic (Get the book.)

"Scientists are beginning to link these and certain other common exposures—like heavy metals, pesticides, dioxins, flame retardants, and PCBs—to different health problems. And a number of recent studies reinforce links between prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants and childhood health problems. A 2004 Columbia study, for example, showed that babies born to nonsmoking women who lived within two miles of the World Trade Center weighed significantly less than full-term infants born in other areas of New York City." - Deirdre Imus, Growing Up Green: Baby and Child Care: Volume 2 in the Bestselling Green This! Series (Green This!) (Get the book.)

"NEC's 2002 PowerMate eco was the first computer to have a fully recyclable plastic case, monitors without harmful gases, and no toxic flame retardants. The jury is still out on whether old electronics cases that companies purport to be biodegradable will actually become the compost pile the companies claim they will, but NEC has recently created a mobile phone with a compostable case, made from a plastic derived from corn and natural fibers, and HP has prototyped a printer with a corn-based plastic case." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"It also bans the use of polybromi-nated flame retardants, the same ones proposed for the POPS list by Norway and the European Union. All these substances are considered by the EU as having potent carcinogenic or neurologically toxic effects.13 Electronics is one of the most global of industries. Soon it would be clear how far the U.S. government had fallen behind even the industry itself. American-made or designed electrical appliances and high-tech products travel the world. U.S." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.) "The former had more brominated flame retardants (PBDEs), the potential neurotoxin used to coat many electronic and other devices that the POPS signatories are trying to ban from the world, and more of the plastic additive bisphenol A, suspected of mimicking estrogen and being carcinogenic. Wagner said the abundance of those substances was clearly a symptom of the modern proliferation of plastic." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.) "These brominated flame retardants they found in my blood, they are sneaky," she wrote. "They have been created to protect us from accidental blazes of domestic appliances and furniture. Actually, they are bio-accumulative, and they can provoke behavioral changes, they are endocrine disrupters. A high percentage of nonstick perfluorinated chemicals were also found in my and my mother's blood. Where can you find them? In the notorious Teflon pans. You cook peacefully, but actually you are getting a stab in the back!" - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"Regulatory battles are ongoing or looming on the horizon over issues that range from limiting pesticide residues to controlling greenhouse air pollution emissions to reining in diesel truck exhaust (in regard to which the European Union is even more reluctant to take action than the United States is) to banning persistent chemicals such as bromine-containing flame retardants.18 Detailing each and every one of these examples is not necessary. The general principles that have been elucidated in this book are also applicable to these issues." - Paul D. Blanc, M.D., How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace (Get the book.)

"Her husband, Jeremiah Holland, suspects that the high levels of flame retardants found in his son aren't unusual. "What I believe is when you test more kids who are consistendy putting their hands in their mouths ... you'll find that Rowan isn't abnormally high, but just one of all children being exposed to environmental pollutants at unprecedented levels." Our Chemical Legacy Most of the synthetic chemicals found in the children didn't exist in the environment, never mind people's bodies, when my own grandmother Millie Pike Duggan was born in 1921." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"By this time, two chemically related flame retardants widely used in the United States, penta and octa brominated diphenyl ether (PBDEs), had been proposed to be added to the POPS list. Both are classified by the EPA as possible human carcinogens, and are suspected of disrupting the development of the thyroid gland. They are banned in Europe. In the United States, production is being phased out but they are still being used, and millions of pounds of PBDEs are coated onto electrical appliances, textiles, and packaging, and onto the furnishings in airplanes and trains." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"Its chemical unit produces pulp and paper chemicals, functional chemicals such as flame retardants, crop 'nutrients', and chemicals for use in detergents and cosmetics, while its pharmaceutical unit produces contraceptives, fertility treatments and antidepressants." - Martin J. Walker, HRT Licensed to Kill and Maim: The Unheard Voices of Women Damaged by Hormone Replacement Therapy (Get the book.)

"Think of the high levels of flame retardants researchers are finding in polar bears as markers for increasing global temperatures. Polar bears are having difficulty reproducing, and these same chemicals are certainly being considered as a cause of or contributor to their reproductive woes. Now, "flame retar-dants originating largely in the United States are building up in their bodies, according to an international team of wildlife scientists," reported Maria Cone in a January 9, 2006, report in the Los Angeles Times (she is also the author of Silent Snow from Grove Press)." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"DDT and lindane), 45 PCB congeners and 21 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) flame retardants, including those found in the commercially traded penta-, octa- and deca-BDEs. Their FINDINGS: ?Every person tested is contaminated by a cocktail of known highly toxic chemicals which were banned from use in the UK during the 1970s and which continue to pose unknown health risks. ?We found 70 (90 per cent) of the 78 chemicals we looked for in the survey. The highest number of chemicals found in any one person was 49, nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of the chemicals looked for. ?" - Mark Sircus, Transdermal Magnesium Therapy (Get the book.)

"The results were similar to previous studies: each person's body was contaminated with hundreds of industrial chemical compounds, including pesticides, stain repellents, flame retardants, plasticizers, even PCBs that were banned in the 1970s. But the subjects of this study were unlike any of the others. These were newborn babies, fresh from the womb." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"Its name is from the Greek, antimonos ("not alone"), and its symbol is from the Latin stibium for antimony sulfide; the only significant modern use of antimony is in flame retardants. Argon (Ar) Discovered in 1894 by William Ramsay and John Strutt (England), argon is a noble gas whose name derives from the Greek argos, "idle." Obtained from liquid air, argon is completely unreactive in ordinary conditions, but is important commercially as an inert atmosphere in lightbulbs and for metallurgical processes." - The New York Times, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind (Get the book.)

"Most mattresses today are made of synthetic materials (polyester, polyurethane, treated with dyes, flame retardants, etc.), which can off-gas for years and poison you while you are sleeping. Fortunately, 100 percent natural mattresses are available. Also, with a doctor's prescription you can obtain mattresses manufactured without toxic flame retardants that otherwise are required by law. At the very least, if you purchase a standard mattress, put it in the garage and allow it to off-gas for a few months before sleeping on it." - Raymond Francis, Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It (Get the book.)

"Flame retardants in many fabrics and upholstery. > Solvents in carpets, fiberboard, chipboard, paints, air fresheners, finishes, cleaning solutions, office corrective fluids, cosmetics, polluted air, and glues. >• Lead and dust from peeling and chipped paint, and water stored in or flowing through lead pipes. Pest-Control Products Virtually every kitchen has a "killing corner," a cupboard or shelf that is filled to the brim with all kinds of fly and roach sprays, insect repellents, flea powders and shampoos, and a battery of other deadly synthetic chemicals." - Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, Toxic Overload: A Doctor's Plan for Combating the Illnesses Caused by Chemicals in Our Foods, Our Homes, and Our Medicine Cabinets (Get the book.) "Do not buy clothes with flame retardants in them foryour-self or your family, except for infants and small children. þ Steer clear of purchasing products with chemical finishes, such as permanent press, wrinkle resistant, antistatic, and water or stain repellent. > Avoid fabrics that have been treated with formaldehyde-based resins that can cause allergic skin reactions. >• Wash and dry all new clothing and bedding three times prior to using for the first time. hyde resins can also cause similar symptoms." - Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, Toxic Overload: A Doctor's Plan for Combating the Illnesses Caused by Chemicals in Our Foods, Our Homes, and Our Medicine Cabinets (Get the book.) "We now know that brominated flame retardants escape from these products into our homes and the environment—and that they're building up at alarming rates in our bodies. New studies are showing serious health effects ranging from interference with prenatal brain development to disruption of hormone function and cancer. Since the chemicals found are known carcinogens and respiratory irritants, parents of children with cancer or asthma should be particularly concerned. The closet or wardrobe tends to be the other major source of chemicals in the bedroom." - Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, Toxic Overload: A Doctor's Plan for Combating the Illnesses Caused by Chemicals in Our Foods, Our Homes, and Our Medicine Cabinets (Get the book.) "Because of current fire regulations, most mattresses are now covered with flame retardants, which can constantly emit health-damaging formaldehyde gas and may contain brominated substances (see next paragraph). Today's modern beds are constructed from a wide range of petrochemical products such as vinyl and polyurethane foam. The latest research shows the petroleum chemicals used to make these materials are being emitted into your breathing zone while you sleep. The flexible polyurethane foam used in upholstered furniture, for example, can be up to 30 percent flame-retardant by weight." - Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, Toxic Overload: A Doctor's Plan for Combating the Illnesses Caused by Chemicals in Our Foods, Our Homes, and Our Medicine Cabinets (Get the book.)

"PCBs, and flame retardants ?all wind up in the food chain, concentrated in fish oil. To grow farm-raised salmon, you have to feed them fish oil, otherwise they will not grow. When you feed them crude fish oil, you're feeding them high concentrations of these contaminants, which they further distill into even higher concentrations. Farm fish are much richer than wild fish in these contaminants, which are known carcinogens and neurotoxins. The government presents us with a Hobson's Choice. On the one hand, it says, "Eat fish, they're healthy." - APC Books, Healing Our Planet, Healing Our Selves: The Power of change Within to Change the World (Get the book.)

"Commercial flame retardants used in electric appliances and building materials are highly carcinogenic and found in the breast milk of North American women at a 37% higher rate than anywhere else—thereby setting up the nursing child for cancer later in life (both from www.ehpnetl. niehs.nih.gov/docs/2003). Because children's immune systems mature over the first few years, exposure to all pesticides adversely affects that development and sets them up for all kinds of immune diseases later on (World Resources Institute study by R. Repetto, 2000)." - Helke Ferrie, Dispatches From the War Zone of Environmental Health (Get the book.)

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