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Flame Retardants a Report to the Legislature

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Flame Retardants a Report to the Legislature Flame Retardants A Report to the Legislature Revised June 2015 Publication no. 14-04-047 Publication and Contact Information This report is available on the Department of Ecology’s website at https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/SummaryPages/1404047.html For more information contact: Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program P.O. Box 47600 Olympia, WA 98504-7600 Phone: 360-407-6700 Washington State Department of Ecology - www.ecy.wa.gov o Headquarters, Olympia 360-407-6000 o Northwest Regional Office, Bellevue 425-649-7000 o Southwest Regional Office, Olympia 360-407-6300 o Central Regional Office, Yakima 509-575-2490 o Eastern Regional Office, Spokane 509-329-3400 Accommodation Requests: To request ADA accommodation including materials in a format for the visually impaired, call the Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program, 360-407-6700. Persons with impaired hearing may call Washington Relay Service at 711. Persons with speech disability may call TTY at 877-833-6341. Flame Retardants A Report to the Legislature By Saskia van Bergen, Holly Davies, Joshua Grice, Callie Mathieu, and Alex Stone Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program Washington State Department of Ecology Olympia, Washington Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the following for their contributions to this document: Staff at the Department of Ecology’s Manchester Laboratory for laboratory analysis and data quality reviews: Joel Bird, Karin Feddersen, John Weakland, and others. The following Department of Ecology headquarters staff: . Kara Steward for assistance with the regulation summary and for reviewing the draft report. Andrew Wineke, Megan Warfield, Ken Zarker, Carol Kraege, Dale Norton, and K Seiler for reviewing the draft report. Cathy Bouge for final report editing and publishing. Table of Contents Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................1 Ecology’s Approach...................................................................................................................1 Background ................................................................................................................................2 Flame Retardants in Certain Children’s Products and Furniture ...............................................3 Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) .............................................................................................6 Antimony as Antimony Trioxide (ATO) ...................................................................................8 Other Key Findings for Halogenated Flame Retardants ..........................................................10 Chapter 1: Background and Approach .....................................................................................12 Chapter 2: Flame Retardants - Overview and Classes .............................................................13 Regulatory Drivers for the Use of Flame Retardants...............................................................14 Additive and Reactive Flame Retardants .................................................................................16 Flame Retardant Classes ..........................................................................................................16 Chapter 3: General Uses and Product Testing Results ............................................................22 TBBPA and Antimony - General Uses ....................................................................................23 Product Testing Results - Globally and Nationally .................................................................24 Specific Product Testing – Washington State ...........................................................................28 Indoor Environment .................................................................................................................31 Reports Under the Children’s Safe Products Act ....................................................................32 Chapter 4: Known Potential Hazards/Health Effects and Exposures ....................................34 Toxicity ....................................................................................................................................34 Exposure ..................................................................................................................................37 Chapter 5: Flame Retardants in the Environment ...................................................................41 Pathways for Environmental Release ......................................................................................41 Alternative Flame Retardants Replacing PBDEs in the Environment .....................................43 Flame Retardants in Washington State ....................................................................................43 Antimony in Washington State ................................................................................................45 Chapter 6: End of Life .................................................................................................................46 Recycling Facilities and Recycled Products ............................................................................47 Incineration ..............................................................................................................................47 Chapter 7: Safer Alternative Work............................................................................................48 DfE Alternatives Assessment Criteria and Process .................................................................49 GreenScreen® Hazard Assessment ..........................................................................................49 Alternative Assessments ..........................................................................................................51 Washington Alternatives Assessment of decabromodiphenyl ether ........................................52 Chapter 8: Existing Regulatory Programs ................................................................................57 Domestic Regulations on Halogenated Flame Retardants .......................................................58 International Regulations on Halogenated Flame Retardants ..................................................61 Chapter 9: Conclusions ...............................................................................................................62 Chapter 10: Summary of Recommendations ............................................................................65 Appendix 1: Acronyms ................................................................................................................68 Appendix 2: Other Tables ...........................................................................................................72 References .....................................................................................................................................81 List of Figures Figure 1: Structure of several brominated flame retardants .......................................................... 18 Figure 2: Structure of the chlorinated flame retardants TCEP, TDCPP, V6, and TCPP .............. 20 Figure 3: Several phosphate based non-halogenated flame retardant ........................................... 21 Figure 4: Reports for Antimony and Antimony Compounds ....................................................... 33 Figure 5: Structure of the thyroid hormone, thyroxin (T4) and PBDE general structure ............. 34 Figure 6. Structures of two halogenated dioxins and furans ......................................................... 48 Figure 7: GreenScreen® Benchmarks ........................................................................................... 50 Figure 8: Benchmarks assigned to 18 of the 29 DfE deca-BDE alternatives ............................... 53 Figure 9: Certified GreenScreen® assessment of ATO ................................................................. 54 List of Tables Table 1: Commonly used flame retardants and where they have been detected in products ....... 24 Table 2: Examples of information reported under CSPA ............................................................. 32 Table 3: Waste composition analysis for the state of Washington, 2009 ..................................... 46 Table 4: Provisional and certified GreenScreen® Benchmarks for deca-BDE and alternatives . 53 Table 5: Provisional and certified GreenScreen® Benchmarks for flame retardants used in Flexible Polyurethane foam .......................................................................................................... 55 Table 6: Provisional GreenScreen® Benchmarks for hexabromocyclododecane and an alternative from EPA, 2014d assessment results ............................................................................................ 56 Table 7: Provisional and certified GreenScreen® Benchmarks for for monomers of tetrabromobisphenol A and two alternatives ................................................................................ 57 Table 8: Summary of chemicals detected in WA products ........................................................... 64 Table 9: Washington 2012-2013 samples – Analytes detected in products ................................. 72 Table 10: Selected Flame Retardants on “Lists” .......................................................................... 74 Table 11: Hazard assessment for deca-BDE and several
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