Joan Blades: Outing the Toxics in Our High Chairs

By Joan Blades, Huffington Post

Baby products throughout the United States are saturated with toxic flame retardants, and it is going to stay that way if the bromine industry has its way. Parents would be outraged if they were aware. Because of an antiquated California flammability standard, California Technical Bulleting 117 (TB117), the foam in children's products such as portable cribs, bassinets, strollers, playpens, swings, nursing pillows, high chairs and toddler chairs are infused with toxic flame retardant chemicals.

These chemicals leach into dust, pets, humans, and the environment. Worst of all, they end up in our children. Californians have the highest body burdens in the world of pentaBDE, a potent endocrine disrupting toxic chemical which is a flame retardant. Now our babies are born with these chemicals in their bodies and get a further dose from their mother's milk and exposure to baby products. Research shows that the levels of this chemical in toddlers' bodies is three times that of their mothers.

These chemicals are almost certainly harmful to human health. In animal studies in multiples species, they cause cancer, neurological impairments like hyperactivity, reproductive problems like lower sperm count, microtestes, thyroid problems, and endocrine disruption.

In Sacramento, playing out on a stage that is largely invisible, SB772, a new bill to get these toxic flame retardants out of baby products, is struggling to stay afloat. Far from the media spotlight,...