Flame Retardants

Flame Retardants

Flame retardants can keep children safe by slowing the spread of fire in toys and childcare products, but exposure to flame retardant chemicals can present health hazards to youngsters. Lawmakers in the United States and Canada are now updating regulations limiting the use of these chemicals in products meant for use by children.

Children tend to have greater contact with chemicals in products in their homes because they frequently put toys and other childcare products in their mouths. These young consumers may also be more vulnerable to the effects of these chemicals because of their smaller size and still-developing organs. In fact, children have higher concentrations of flame retardants in their bodies than do adults.

Even items children do not put into their mouths can pose a problem – children can breathe in flame retardants leaching out of the fabric and foam in children’s car seats; this problem can worsen in the warmer summer months. In a 2018 study, researchers found new or traditional hazardous flame retardant chemicals in 15 of the 18 children’s car seats.

There are hundreds of flame retardants, categorized according to the chemicals they contain. Many of the most commonly used flame retardants present the potential to cause harm in children. Brominated flame retardants (PBBs/PBDEs, HBCD, TBBPA) contain bromine, for example, and are the most abundantly used flame retardants; brominated flame retardants can cause endocrine disruption that can lead to cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) can lower birth weight and/or length of newborns and impair their neurological development. Flame retardants containing phosphorus (TCEP, TDCPP, TDBPP) or antimony trioxide can cause cancer or other illnesses.

The Changing Landscape of Flame Retardants in Children’s Products

Certain toys, childcare products, and other consumer products must meet fire safety standards, but legislators have recently updated these flammability standards to help reduce the potential for exposure to toxins, particularly in children. These bills and laws limit the amount of specific flame retardants in children’s products.

California’s Assembly Bill 2998 took effect in January 2020, effectively banning the sale of certain children’s products made for residential use if the products contain more than 0.1% antimony trioxide, chlorinated tris, TCEP and TBBPA, for example. Maine’s Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §1609 bans products containing added brominated flame retardants. Washington’s Children’s Safe Products Act (CSPA) limits the use of cadmium, lead, phthalates, and specific flame retardants in products made for children. It also requires manufacturers of certain children’s products to report if their goods contain chemicals of high concern to children.

Other states in the US are currently considering bills to prohibit the use of flame retardants in children’s products and other products. Alaska’s HB 27 would prohibit the sale of children’s products containing antimony and other flame retardants, for example, while Georgia’s HB 1072 would prohibit antimony, TDCCP, TCEP, HBCD, and more in products meant for use by children. Bills from other states, such as Illinois’ SB3378, would require their Departments of Public Health to create updated lists of high priority chemicals of concern for children’s health.

Canada has also taken steps to limit children’s exposure to certain flame retardants. The country’s leaders banned TBPP from clothing and children’s sleepwear, for example, and banned TCEP from children’s products made with polyurethane foam.

Why choose a Eurofins company for Flame Retardant Testing?

Many states in the US and countries around the world now require testing of flame retardant chemicals in toys, children’s products, and other products. We maintain state-of-the-art facilities purpose-built for efficient sample processing and compliant testing environment to help manufacturers of a wide variety of products meet the changing flame retardant standards in many countries around the world.