Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Decrease Unsafe Toxins Act”.
Decrease Unsafe Toxins Act
A BILL
To amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 to ban flame retardant chemicals from use in resilient filling materials in children’s products.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 establishes safety requirements for children’s products. The Act identifies lead and phthalates as chemicals of concern to be reduced or eliminated in children’s products due to their toxicity. Certain flame retardants used in children’s products should also be considered banned hazardous substances and eliminated from use in resilient filling materials in certain cushioned children’s products.
Organohalogen and organophosphorous flame retardants are used in some children’s cushioned products to meet various flammability standards. In a 2011 study published in Environmental Science and Technology, over 80 percent of the children’s cushioned products tested were found to contain at least one flame retardant chemical.
Children in the United States have some of the highest levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in their bodies globally. In fact, toddlers have three times the blood levels of their mothers of the toxic flame retardant pentaBDE.
Research has shown that flame retardants have been associated with cancer, immune, and endocrine disruption, developmental impairment, birth defects, and reproductive dysfunction. Organohalogen and organophosphorous flame retardants are often toxic, and are associated with reduced IQ (similar to lead poisoning), hyperactivity, reduced fertility, birth defects, and hormonal changes.
According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infants and children are especially vulnerable to exposure to flame retardants through ingestion of contaminated dust via hand-to-mouth contact. Children crawl and play on floors, put objects in their mouths, and are generally closer to the ground where dust settles.
Flame retardant chemicals in children’s cushioned products are unnecessary. Studies show that there is no measurable fire safety benefit to California’s Furniture Flammability Standard Technical Bulletin (TB117). Also, these products contain small amounts of resilient filling material compared to adult upholstered furniture, and thus do not present a significant fire hazard as a fuel source.
Strollers, infant carriers, and nursing pillows have been exempt from California’s TB117 since 2010 and the proposed revision of California’s Flammability Standard (TB117–2013) includes a provision to exempt 17 more baby and infant products from the standard. This is due to the State agency’s understanding that these products do not present a significant fire hazard.
Banning the use of flame retardant chemicals in children’s products would help reduce unnecessary health risks to children associated with exposure to chemicals that do not add a fire safety benefit.
Sec. 3 Ban on flame retardant chemicals in the resilient filling materials in certain children’s products
In general— Title I of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–314) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
“109. Ban on flame retardant chemicals in the resilient filling materials in children’s products
“(a) In general—Any children’s cushioned product that is manufactured on or after the date that is one year after the date of the enactment of the Decrease Unsafe Toxins Act that contains more than 1,000 parts per million flame retardant chemical by weight in the filling material used to make such product shall be treated as a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (15 U.S.C. 1261 et seq.).
“(b) Definitions
“(1) Children’s cushioned product—In this section, the term children’s cushioned product means a children’s product (as defined in section 3(a)(2) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2052(a)(2))) that contains resilient filling materials, such as high chairs, strollers, infant walkers, booster seats, car seats, changing pads, floor play mats, highchair pads, highchairs, infant swings, bassinets, infant seats, infant bouncers, nursing pads, playards, playpen side pads, infant mattresses, infant mattress pads, and portable hook-on chairs.
“(2) Flame retardant chemical defined—In this section, the term flame retardant chemical means an organohalogen or organophosphorous compound.”
Clerical amendment— The table of contents of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–314) is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 108 the following: