Carl Lowe
Source: Easy Health Options
May 22, 2012
Right now, you may be sitting on about two pounds of poison: the fire retardant chemicals in your chair. The same chemicals are in your computer, carpet padding, bed and house dust. These toxins, linked to cancer and other health problems, continuously escape from our furniture and pollute our indoor environment. They’re a toxic scam. They don’t prevent or slow fires. They’re mainly poisonous money-makers for big corporations.
Tobacco Company Diversion
Our widespread use of toxic fire retardant chemicals originates with the tobacco companies, according to a revealing report by The Chicago Tribune.
Decades ago, cigarette makers were under pressure to create safer cigarettes that wouldn’t incinerate smokers when they fell asleep while smoking in bed or stretched out on the sofa. But these companies decided a safer cigarette would cost too much to make. Instead of coming up with a fireproof cigarette, they cooked up the idea of lobbying for so-called fire “retardants” to be added to furniture that would supposedly keep lit cigarettes from starting house fires.
Of course, they couldn’t openly admit they were trying to weasel out of making safer products. So, instead, the tobacco companies secretly helped organize the National Association of State Fire Marshals and manipulated the group into pushing for Federal rules mandating the addition of flame retardant chemicals to household furniture.
Chemical Company Profits
Later on, big chemical companies, realizing the profit potential of producing and selling chemicals to be added to everyone’s furniture, backed the formation of a group called Citizens for Fire Safety that also advocated the wide use of fire retardants. This group trumpets the fact that it is made up of “… fire professionals, educators, community activists, burn centers, doctors, fire departments and industry leaders.”
In fact, Citizens for Fire Safety is a front for three chemical companies: Chemtura, Albemarle and ICL Industrial Products.
As part of the underhanded campaign to promote the necessity of fire retardants, at least one burn doctor has testified before regulators about the lifesaving properties of fire retardants. The only problem is, a close look at his testimony shows that much of it is just fiction. It’s hard not to believe that his point of view has been influenced by the group that pays him: Citizens for Fire Safety.
Worse Living Through Chemistry
The health and environmental effects of flame retardants have been widely researched:
Click Here to continue reading.
Related articles
- Lies, damned lies, and flame-retardant furniture (boingboing.net)
- Investigation Finds Makers of Harmful, Ineffective Chemical Fire Retardants Use Deception, Front Groups to Mislead Regulators, Public (yubanet.com)
- Flame retardants and farm chemicals could affect our bodies for generations (grist.org)
- Do Fire Retardants Work? And Since They Don’t, Why is Their Use Mandated in Furniture? (reason.com)
- Fight Over Flame Retardants In Furniture Heats Up (wnyc.org)
- Norman Lear: Business Fights Back — “No More Mr. Nice Guy!” (huffingtonpost.com)
- Fear Fans Flames of Chemical Fire Retardant Manufacturers (ehssafetynews.com)
- Chemical-Soaked Danger Lurks in Your Couch (newser.com)
5/24/2012
A 30-Year Corporate Conspiracy To Poison Our Furniture – thanks to VK
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment