SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — For years, I’ve covered the debate over chemical flame retardants in consumer products and my professional research has often impacted the decisions I make at home.
For instance, long before my daughter was born, I replaced my couch cushions with flame retardant-free foam for a consumer story on California’s changing flammability standard.
While pregnant, I reported on how to detect flame retardants in baby products and then went out and bought the recommended mattresses, changing pads, nursing pillows, basically ridding our home of polyurethane foam.
By the time my daughter was born, we believed our home was largely flame-retardant free.
So imagine our surprise when a bio-monitoring study that I was participating in for an unrelated story revealed extremely high levels of the flame retardant TDCPP in my 2-year-old.
Coincidentally, I’d just reported on that same chemical in certain models of my daughter’s high-end “green” car seat and had already sent away samples of the foam for testing.
The Orbit Baby car seat-stroller system retailed for over $1000, in part because the company claimed its materials were tested to ensure “below detection limits” of “dangerous flame retardant chemicals” including “TDCPP.” I’d featured the car seat in several news reports and even spoke with the company’s founder. http://newsmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Orbit-BFR-Free-2.jpg
The day after we received my daughter’s bio-monitoring results, we got the results back from the foam sewn into in her car seat’s head rest and “Orbit Green Certified Fabric.” Ultimately three independent labs confirmed the car seat’s foam tested positive for TDCPP.
“TDCPP has been clearly shown to cause cancer,” said Dr. Martha Sandy, a toxicologist and Chief of the State’s Reproductive and Cancer Assessment Branch for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
Dr. Sandy explained that a team of scientists reviewed decades of research in humans, animals and cells before adding TDCPP to the California’s Prop 65 list of known carcinogens.
TDCPP was removed from children’s pajamas in the 70s due to health concerns, though it was only added to the Prop 65 list in 2011.
Like most flame retardants, TDCPP does not stay in the product and kids are more susceptible to the harmful effects of chemical flame retardants because their cells are still developing. Kids are also more likely to ingest the chemicals which migrate into dust due to normal kid behaviors like hand to mouth contact.
For perspective, the levels of the metabolite for TDCPP in my body were 3.8 parts per billion (ppb). That was lower than the average child in previous studies which ranged between 5-7 ppb.
However, my toddler tested positive for more than 60 ppb!
From the Green Science Policy Institute, to the Environmental Working Group, to toxicologists with the state’s Office Of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, everyone who saw my daughter results were shocked to learn that they were so high.
The results were especially surprising because mine were so low and we live in the same home that we’d largely rid of chemical flame retardants. My daughter does not attend day care yet and spends most of her day in the home so she is not regularly exposed to external sources of TDCPP outside the home. However, I am.
Those were obviously terrifying results for any parent, but Dr. Sandy tried to alleviate my greatest fears.
“Well I think what you have done, replacing the car seat with one that does not have this cancer causing chemical in it is the right first step,” she assured me. “And there’s no reason to think your daughter is going to get cancer from this particular exposure.”
She explained if someone ingested 5.4 micrograms of the chemical every day, over a lifetime, their cancer risk would be 1 in 100,000.
The bad news is that it’s just one of the concerning chemicals that we’re exposed to every day and the combined effects are unknown.
However, the good news is that TDCPP doesn’t stay in the body for long once you eliminate continued exposure.
Before publicly reporting our results, I wanted to give Orbit the benefit of the doubt.
Twenty-four hours after getting the bio-monitoring results and buying a new seat, we took another sample from my daughter and followed it up with a third test 10 days later.
According to Duke University’s Dr. Jennifer Stapleton who has performed several similar biomonitoring studies, the half-life of the TDCPP metabolite is about 8 hours. In other words, every 8 hours the amount of the chemical in your body should reduce by half.
All else the same, my daughter’s levels dropped from 60.08 ppb while she was using the car seat to 8.68 ppb about 24 hours after her last exposure. They dropped further to 4.25 ppb 10 days later. The follow-up samples were taken at the same time of day.
“I think it provides a great natural experiment,” Dr. Sandy said after hearing about our test. She explained similar scientific tests like this are rare because it is not ethical (or likely legal) to purposely expose children to known carcinogen in order to find out how it affects their bodies.
“You daughter’s results suggest her car seat was the primary source of her exposure,” explained Dr. Sandy.
Dr. Johanna Congleton, senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group agreed.
In a statement, Orbit Baby said, “Since there are so many products and places where people, especially children, can be exposed to various chemicals, it is difficult to definitively link the presence of a particular substance to a specific source.”
An Orbit Baby spokesperson added, “We continue our many best practices, including prohibiting suppliers from using halogenated flame retardants and specifically limiting or restricting more than 100 different chemicals. We encourage consumers who have questions or concerns to contact our Customer Care line.”
Researchers at The Environmental Working Group and toxicologists with the California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment both tell us that these results indicate my daughter’s Orbit car seat was her primary source of exposure to TDCPP.
However, it is important to note that all car seats currently have flame retardants. While some flame retardants are believed to be safer than others, a recent technical report by the Ecology Center found concerning chemicals in 75% of the car seats tested. http://www.ecocenter.org/healthy-stuff/reports/childrens-car-seat-study
“A car seat is the only product that you as a parent are required by law to purchase,” said Julie Vallese of the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.
Manufacturers would like car seats to be exempt from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s federal flammability standard, which currently requires them to use flame retardants in car seats.
While they could use chemical-free barrier fabrics that would also meet the flammability standard, manufacturers say the materials are too expensive for most consumers to afford.
Currently, car seats must meet the same flammability standards as the interior of the car itself, yet many fire scientist, consumer groups, and manufacturers argue that there is no evidence that indicates flame retardants in car seats actually protect children in a fire.
If a fire has managed to burn though all the other flame retardant coverings in a vehicle, they say the foam under the child is largely irrelevant.
Following recent discussions with Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently agreed last month to “begin research” on a new car seat standard, that could “potentially be met without flame retardants.”
Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association points out that this is a very big, but a very new development and it could take years before chemical free car seats actually make their way to the market.
However, similar changes to flammability standards for furniture resulted in almost immediate access to flame retardant-free furniture.
In the meantime, Dr. Sandy recommends washing your child’s hands whenever they get out of the car, and cleaning and vacuuming your car seat regularly.
Dr. Sandy, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, also urge parents to leave the car seats in the car and never use them as stroller seats or allow infants to sleep in a car seat outside of the car.
If you want to know what is in your car seat, you can have a sample of your car seat tested for free through the foam testing program at Duke University. http://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/superfund/whats-in-my-foam