The Pharos Project is a project of the Healthy Building Network. HBN is:

In Vermont:
Melissa Coffin, Bill Walsh

In California:
Tom Lent

In Washington, DC:
Larry Kilroy, Sarah Gilberg, Sarah Pickell, Susan Sabella

In Maine:
Jim Vallette

CLEARING A FLAME RETARDANT SMOKE SCREEN

 

In the process of identifying flame retardants in household dust and sewage sludge, Duke University environmental chemist Heather Stapleton identified four new compounds that raised public and environmental health concerns. Then she ran into a wall of industry secrecy. Many flame retardant manufacturers do not disclose their product's ingredients, so she could not cross-reference her findings with industry data.

Chemical companies routinely claim trade secrecy in matters pertaining to their products. An article in yesterday's Washington Post highlights the intersection of chemical ingredient secrecy and public policy.

The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act allows companies like Chemtura to not disclose broadly-defined "confidential business information" (CBI). As the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported last month, companies have placed CBI claims on 13,596 new chemicals produced since 1976.

Chemtura's Flamemaster 550® is one of these new chemicals, introduced as an alternative to brominated diphenyl ethers, such as Penta- and Deca-BDE. The company's website says the new product's ingredients are proprietary. And they told the Washington Post that CBI is "essential for ensuring the long-term competitiveness of U.S. industry."

"Industry had good reason to conceal the ingredients in Firemaster 550," notes EWG. If EPA scientists knew "the identity of the chemicals in Firemaster 550, the product would have come under serious scrutiny within the agency."

Yet much about Flamemaster 550®'s composition is readily known by industry competitors. A 1995 patent filed by Great Lakes Chemical (now part of Chemtura) lays out the production process and chemistry of Flamemaster 550® in great details. The primary chemical is a tetrabromobenzoate, produced from phthlalic anhydrides and 2-ethylhexanol. (Richard Rose, et al., "Use of ring-brominated benzoate compounds as flame retardants and/or plasticizers," Great Lakes Chemical Corporation, filed April 11, 1995, U.S. Patent No. 5,728,760)

While the patent describes the chemistry for all to see, Dr. Stapleton reverse engineered the flame retardant in the lab, and saw that its profile matched her findings of new chemical exposures in the household.

Patent searches and laboratory testing are common methods of identifying the composition of products. Chemtura admits this in a 2008 filing with EPA, which claims that its products' chemistry is Confidential Business Information.

An EPA form asks "whether a competitor could employ reverse engineering to identically recreate the substance." Chemtura concedes, "It is possible, but the competitor would have to have available the appropriate analytical equipment, the expertise and time."

It took me about five minutes, on-line, to find the basic process for making Flamemaster 550® via a patent search. And Dr. Stapleton's lab tests identified the product's ingredients with further precision, and without a chemical corporation's budget.

Here's the real bottom line: researchers will find out what is in problematic products, despite the TSCA CBI loophole. The sooner companies realize this, and provide full disclosure, the better it will be for their long-term positioning in the marketplace.

Jim Vallette is a researcher with the Pharos Project and the Healthy Building Network.

Comments

There are 2 comments.

  
Hi Alison - I wanted to point you to some precise information about the listed hazards associated with these ingredients you uncovered. You can see the direct hazard associations at the bottom of the individual chemical profile page in the Pharos Chemical and Material Library (CML). The CML lists antimony trioxide as a known carcinogen because it appears on the California Proposition 65 list of Chemicals Known to the State to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity. You can access the Prop 65 list from the front page of the CML, or see it directly here: http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/files/P65single121809.pdf . Prop 65 started listing antimony trioxide as a carcinogen in 1990. Decabromodiphenyl oxide is a synonym for Decabromobiphenyl ether (CAS No. 1163-19-5). It is listed by the US EPA as having "suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential." It is also listed as a persistent, bioaccumulative, toxicant by the OSPAR Commission and States of Washington and Oregon, earning it a "black flag" warning in the CML. This is a material of urgent concern due to persistance and bioaccumulation. Consumers are urged to avoid this chemical immediately. Thanks for sharing the results of your research!

  
I just went through a small research exercise asking different furniture manufacturers what flame barrier they use to meet TB133 in their upholstered furniture. The news from a Steelcase line was Fireguard F287 which contains Decabromodiphenyl Oxide and Antimony Trioxide. After checking the hazardous materials list I found both could be carcinogenic. Let me know if that is correct. How are these flame retardants getting used? Why isn't there some way to keep these out. I'm concerned about meeting TB133 (required in most of our Hospital projects) because it forces us to knowingly expose all our clients to toxins in the event that there is a fire not put out by fire sprinklers...or double protection. The irony is we aren't protecting anyone.

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