Free Republic

(WOMENSENEWS)--Since two of her children were born with special needs that may be linked to environmental pollution, Melissa Wolfe has worried about flame retardants in her home. Today's release of two studies in the journal Environmental Science and Technology indicate that these chemicals are prevalent in couch upholstery and dust, and raise Wolfe's level of concern. "One of my sons is a thumb sucker, and this news makes me even more nervous about what he is putting in his mouth," says Wolfe, who lives in Brentwood, N.H., and is a board member of the New Hampshire Learning Disabilities Association. Flame...

For the past 30 years, flame retardants have been found in every Canadian home, added liberally as a safety precaution to everything from mattresses and carpets to stereos, televisions and computers. Now Canada is poised to add flame retardants — or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — to its toxic-substances list. If a draft proposal it is circulating is any guide, the federal government is expected to virtually eliminate some varieties of the chemical and place tight controls on others. Regulators are considering drastic action because laboratory studies using animals have linked the chemicals to behaviour changes that bear an uncanny...