Senate OKs Bill to Ban Retardant

The state Senate on Thursday approved legislation that will make California the only state in the nation to ban toxic chemicals widely used as flame retardants that are rapidly building up in the bodies of people and wildlife around the world.

The bill, already approved by the state Assembly in May, will be sent to Gov. Gray Davis for his signature after the Assembly acts on some minor technical amendments next week. The secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Winston Hickox, came out in favor of the legislation earlier this month, saying that in the face of federal inaction, California should ban the flame retardants because they “raise serious public health questions.”

The two types of PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, are used throughout North America to reduce the flammability of polyurethane foam in upholstered furniture, bedding, carpeting and building materials. Scientists say that the compounds are doubling in human bodies and in the environment throughout the United States and Canada every two to five years -- a rate unprecedented for any chemical in half a century.

Under the legislation, the flame retardants would be banned in California beginning in 2008.

California is a leader in use of the chemicals because it has the world’s most stringent flammability requirements for furniture. Industry representatives say that once the state bans them, they are likely to be phased out elsewhere.

The legislation would prohibit all products containing penta and octa PBDEs, which are applied mostly to upholstered furniture and building materials but also to the plastic housings of computers and other electronic equipment. The compounds have been banned by the European Union, where industries began voluntarily phasing them out in the late 1990s.

Infants and young children face the greatest risk from the chemicals, which in laboratory tests on rodents have been shown to interfere with thyroid hormones, which regulate how brains grow. PBDEs pass through a mother’s womb and are readily absorbed by a fetus. They also accumulate in breast milk.

Only a few hundred people in the U.S. have been tested so far, but the results indicate that some women and their babies are carrying levels of PBDEs that have been shown to affect the developing brains of animals. Scientists say the effects on children are likely to be subtle but could include measurable changes in a child’s intelligence, memory, hyperactivity and hearing.

“In the Bay Area, we have among the highest accumulation rates of PBDEs in women. For the area I represent, and California as a whole, this is a really, really critical public health issue,” Assembly Majority Leader Wilma Chan (D-Alameda), the bill’s author, said after the Senate vote. “We have to pay more attention to how our children are developing, so we should not be using chemicals that can cause brain damage and nerve damage.”

The Senate approved the bill on a 25-12 vote, with no discussion. Two Republicans and 23 Democrats voted yes, while 12 Republicans voted against it. In the Assembly, the bill passed 45 to 29, with no support from Republicans.

Companies that manufacture the chemical or sell products containing PBDEs did not oppose the bill. Several chemical companies said they have already developed experimental compounds that can make polyurethane just as flame-resistant as penta PBDEs.

Great Lakes Chemical Corp., the only U.S. manufacturer of penta PBDE, the dominant one to show up in human bodies, dropped opposition when Chan agreed before the Assembly voted to delay the effective date by two years until 2008.

“We believe that the time frame allows for an orderly transition to alternative flame-retardant technologies,” said Anne Noonan, a vice president of the Indianapolis-based chemical company. “We are committed to working with both regulators and legislators to ensure the highest levels of fire safety while protecting both environmental and health concerns.”

Industry groups, however, are concerned that the California law will set a precedent for politicians prohibiting certain chemicals. The state Legislature has rarely banned chemicals, instead relying on state or federal agencies to regulate them.

About 135 million pounds of PBDEs were used in 2001, half in North America.

One type, called deca PBDE, used in large quantities for computers, televisions and other electronics, is not included in the California bill or the European ban. It apparently is not building up quickly in people or the environment.

Dan Jacobson, legislative director of the advocacy group Environment California, called Thursday’s action “incredibly significant. In California, we’re hoping to lead America in banning this highly toxic flame retardant.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the safety of PBDEs but it has no plans to impose national regulations.

EPA scientists have encouraged companies to develop alternatives, but banning chemicals under federal law can be difficult and time-consuming.

Some of the highest levels worldwide have been found in San Francisco-area women, who were tested by Cal/EPA scientists. Americans carry on average 10 to 70 times more PBDEs than Europeans, several studies show.

Striped bass caught by anglers in San Francisco Bay last fall had more than triple the levels found in 1997, and halibut had more than double, according to tests by the organization Environmental Working Group. No tests have been conducted on people or fish in Southern California.

Experts are uncertain how the chemicals get into human bodies, but they suspect it is either from eating fish or from inhaling dust contaminated by disintegrating foam in household and office furnishings.

In potency and ability to accumulate in the environment, PBDEs are similar to PCBs, a chemical banned in the U.S. in the 1970s.

Toxicologists say PBDEs, like PCBs, will endure in human bodies and wildlife for decades even after they are no longer used.

The compounds are spreading globally, most likely via the air, and settling in oceans as far away as the North Pole.