Flame Retardants Still Omnipresent In NYC Homes, Study Shows

NEW YORK, NY — You've presumably heard, by now, of the fateful 1970s flame-retardant craze that ended in nearly every piece of furniture foam in America, as well as most other corners of the Earth (whale nostrils, beehives, bird's nests, baby human fingernails, you name it), being coated in horrible, cancer-causing, hormone-altering chemicals called PBDEs. Although most furniture companies phased out PBDEs in the 2000s to comply with various state bans, they still rear their ugly molecular compounds in all sorts of unlikely places to this day, and probably will for the next, like, 50 years, experts say.

"They're not going away anytime soon, because how often do you get a new carpet or couch?" Columbia University researcher Whitney Cowell said.

But we knew this already. The scary news, today, is that — in order to continue passing flame tests on the cheap — many furniture companies have simply switched to new, under-studied and likely super unhealthy flame retardants containing the chemicals TBB and TBPH. (Such as Firemaster 550.)

A study released this week by Columbia University's Center for Children's Environmental Health showed that of 25 households tested for both the new and the old chemicals in New York City, all the tests came out positive.

The study found "evidence of potentially harmful flame retardants on the hands and in the homes of 100 percent of a sample of New York City mothers and toddlers."

On average, the study found, "toddlers in New York City had higher levels of common flame-retardants on their hands compared to their mothers."

Although Columbia researchers only had the funding to test 25 homes — most of them in Washington Heights, Harlem and the Bronx — Cowell, the study's author, said the flame-retardant chemicals' consistent presence in every home tested, coupled with their highly diffusive nature, point to what is likely a broader trend.

"The exposure is probably pretty consistent across New York and other parts of the country," Cowell said. "We are pretty sure that the exposure is coming from consumer products... which depend less on region."

Indeed, another 2011 study found TBB and TBPH levels were "rising rapidly" in America's Great Lakes region.

TBBs and TBPHs haven't been studied enough to say conclusively what kind of health risks they cause.

However, in preliminary tests, animals exposed to the chemicals showed reduced fertility and messed-up hormone levels, according to Columbia.

"Toddlers are being exposed to replacement flame retardant chemicals that we know little about," the Columbia study's senior author, associate professor Julie Herbstman, said. "Future research needs not only to focus on understanding the toxicity of these compounds, but also on how exposure occurs in the home and what behaviors and policies can be used to reduce personal exposure."

What to do with these haunting test results, on top of every other existential threat we've got to worry about in 2017?

For now, Cowell said, "We know we're being exposed largely through dust, rather than food or through the air." So the danger, she said, is "having the dust on your hands and putting your hands in your mouth."

To keep the dust down, she said, mop frequently and otherwise try to keep your household surfaces and your family's hands as clean as possible.

Or, if the inspiration strikes, you could always take it upon yourself to lobby Big Furniture and federal regulators to prioritize alternate options (flame-resistant fabrics, etc.) in the process of ensuring household items don't catch fire. That way, 50 years from now, we may finally get some reprieve.

Lead image via Kate Ter Haar/Flickr