Help on Finding Products Made Without Chemical Fire Retardants
In our "Killer Cribs" and "Killer Couch" reports, we outline the health and environmental risks associated with a class of toxic fire retardant chemicals called halogenated fire retardants. These chemicals are found in many commonly used household items, including upholstered furniture and baby products.
We have provided our data for you to read, but want to also provide you with information on how you can protect yourself as a consumer.
1. Take steps to protect yourself as a consumer:
- Before buying new baby products and /or upholstered furniture, ask the sales staff whether the product contains halogenated fire retardants. If they don’t know, don’t buy it.
- For existing baby products or furniture, look underneath the item to see if there is a label specifying that it meets California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB 117). If so, it is likely that it contains halogenated fire retardants. To be certain, you may wish to contact the manufacturer.
- There are numerous baby product and furniture manufacturers now offering safer products. Please see our list below.
- Better choices are products with hard surfaces such as wood and metal. Generally, in terms of product fillings, organic cotton, polyester, down and wool may contain fewer or no halogenated fire retardant chemicals.
- Vacuum often and use a HEPA filter to keep the dust level down in your house.
2. Support Friends of the Earth’s work to end the use of toxic fire retardants. You can make a contribution here.
For a range of baby products:
For organic crib mattresses:
For furniture:
