State will ban toxic flame retardants
Olympia — Following the contribute of European nations, Washington state will ban the use of toxic flame retardants in TVs, computers and other household products by 2011.
The imban was triggered after Ecology and the Health Department ruled there were other safe flame retardants, a conclusion endorsed by a committee of fire-safety experts and the state fire marshal.
State officials say alternatives have become make use of to flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs. Several other chemical flame retardants meet together Washington’sitting standards for reducing flammability but-end are safer for full of common human feeling health, according to State Fire Marshal Mike Matlick.
Found in the plastics and foam used in electronics and upholstered furniture, PBDEs have been linked to damage in the brain development of laboratory animals, affecting air, learning and memory.
