When you’re a parent, finding safe baby furniture and toys is a challenge. While being “flame retardant” is a desired quality for baby products, especially for mattresses, the chemicals used are not. In fact, common chemical chlorinated Tris – found in both furniture foam and baby products – leaches out and ends up in dust around the home. You and your child, as a result, end up ingesting and inhaling it unwittingly.
While chlorinated Tris was once removed from baby pajamas in the 1970s for fear of cancer, the chemical is still practically omnipresent through furniture and other flame-retardant items. As a result, creating a chemical-free environment for your child is difficult and expensive. California, however, is considering adding the common flame retardant to its state list of carcinogens.
With the toughest regulations for flammability, California enforces its the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, or Proposition 65. Proposition 65 is in place to prevent cancer- or birth defect-causing chemicals in the water. Chemicals that meet Proposition 65’s requirements for carcinogens end up on an annual list.
The EPA and CPSC have both declared chlorinated Tris a carcinogen, and the chemical has been associated with cancer in factory workers and lab animals. Manufacturers, on the other hand, don’t think that this is enough evidence to warrant labeling chlorinated Tris a carcinogen. If the chemical ends up on such a list, all products containing it, when sold in California, will come with a warning label, one similar to those added to cigarettes or alcohol.
How does this affect you as a parent? As you might have found, finding baby products free of synthetic flame retardants is not easy. At the same time, you want a safe and chemical-free sleeping area for your child. If the chemical ends up on California’s list, identifying such products will become easier for parents.
