Cancer-causing, hormone-disrupting flame retardant chemicals have been found in a variety of household products made with black plastic, including food service containers, kitchen utensils, and toys. The highest levels of toxic flame retardants were found in a sushi tray, a spatula and Halloween costume jewelry--all made with black plastic.
TAKE ACTION: Tell your state legislators to ban black plastic toxic flame retardants!
A spatula might benefit from being fireproof, but why a sushi tray or a necklace? The group that tested the products, Toxic-Free Future, suspects that the items didn't have flame retardants added intentionally. Instead, they were probably made with plastic from recycled e-waste. The black styrene-based plastics used in large TVs, computers and other electronics typically have high levels of toxic flame retardants.
Toxic flame retardant chemicals were found in 85 percent of black plastic products analyzed, with total concentrations ranging up to 22,800 ppm. The brominated flame retardant deca-BDE was found at levels ranging from 5 to 1,200 times greater than the European Union's limit of 10 ppm. In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency banned deca-BDE because of its carcinogenicity, genotoxicity and developmental toxicity, its neurological and immunological effects, and its impact on the liver. But it made an exception for the recycling of decaBDE-containing plastics as long as no new decaBDE is added. The EPA's action is at least a step in the right direction, but there are a lot of other organohalogen flame retardants still allowed in electronics that might be just as dangerous, like 2,4,6-tribromophenol, which was recently detected in breast milk.
According to Safer States, Washington and New York have each banned all organohalogen flame retardants in televisions, computers and other plastic enclosures for electronic displays.
TAKE ACTION: Tell your state legislators to ban black plastic toxic flame retardants!
Personal Information
*SAMPLE TEXT TO YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS*
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Dear State Legislator,
Please get toxic flame retardants out of black plastic.
Flame retardants are linked with elevated cancer risk, developmental and reproductive harm and hormone disruption.
There's already a massive push to remove toxic flame retardants from furniture and baby products, but we need to get these toxic chemicals out of electronics, too.
At a minimum, all halogenated flame retardants should be banned. Halogenated flame retardants contain at least one atom of bromine, chlorine, fluorine or iodine bonded to a carbon atom, which transform into highly carcinogenic compounds when burned. These flame retardants are widely used in televisions, computers and other electronics.
In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency banned deca-BDE, but it made an exception for recycled plastic. So now, as Toxic-Free Future recently found, because of e-waste recycling, the halogenated flame retardants from our old computers and TVs are being sold back to us in the form of black plastic kitchen utensils, food containers and toys.
This is why these toxins are in the dust in our homes and work places and contaminate mothers' breast milk.
Please work with Safer States to do everything you can to reduce our exposure to flame retardants.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Your Name