Consumer Federation of California

We applaud Governor Jerry Brown’s call for state regulators to revise a 37-year-old furniture fire safety standard that has exposed millions of California families to dangerous levels of toxic flame retardant chemicals in our homes. Governor Brown recognizes that it is time for California to adopt a new non-toxic safety standard that protects us from home fires without the use of toxic chemicals that harm our health.

Governor Brown’s statement confirms the overwhelming scientific evidence indicating flame retardant (chlorinated and brominated) chemicals are present at extremely elevated rates in the blood streams of pregnant California women, and infants and toddlers. California firefighters have also been found to have significantly elevated rates of cancer, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and brain cancer related to dioxin and furan, which are emitted when these flame retardant chemicals smolder in a house fire.

The Consumer Federation of California, along with a broad coalition of consumer groups, firefighters, environmental organizations, scientists, labor unions, mothers and health professionals has been calling on the Governor to adopt a modern furniture flammability standard that would protect us from fires without loading our homes with harmful chemicals.

We are pleased to hear that the Brown Administration is taking action to replace this antiquated regulation with a new standard that will prevent the spread of home fires without the use of harmful chemicals.