Demand that the Flame Retardant Industry give access to independent scientists to prove its safety and effectiveness.

A recent in-depth investigation by the Chicago Tribune has revealed a scary truth about flame retardant furniture that we should all be aware of.

See the story here: http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/flames/index.html

A generation ago, tobacco companies were facing growing pressure to produce fire-safe cigarettes, because so many house fires started with smoldering cigarettes. Instead of making a safer cigarette, the tobacco companies mounted a stealthy government-focused campaign for “fireproof” furniture as the best way to reduce house fires. Thus, the flame retardant industry was born.

Cigarette lobbyists secretly organized dummy advocacy groups that pushed for requiring fire retardants in furniture. Called Citizens for Safety, it described itself as “a coalition of fire professionals, educators, community activists, burn centers, doctors, fire departments and industry leaders.”

In reality, there were only three members, which happened to be the three major companies that manufacture flame retardant: Albemarle Corporation, ICL Industrial Products and Chemtura Corporation.

Now flame retardant is in practically all furniture, and a growing number of independent scientists are linking it to an assortment of ills, including diabetes and cancer. Children are the primary victims, ingesting tainted dust as they play on the floor. Pregnant women are even at risk of altering the brain development of their unborn children.

The flame retardant industry insists that their chemicals are safe. But for some reason, they’d prefer to be the only ones that test their own products.

It's time to tell these companies to prove themselves or own up to the fact that they are knowingly forcing unsafe and untested materials into our homes and using the government as their enforcer. Demand that independent studies be allowed to test flame retardant for its safety and effectiveness. There are no sides here – we’re all at risk.