[Pharmwaste] RE: Foam Alone: Do Furniture Flame Retardants Save EnoughLives to Justify Their Environmental Damage?

[Fredrick L. Miller]

Good question, Dr. Gressitt, and thanks for the catch.  Since I haven't
actually done any calculations, I would like to retract "far greater
risk" and substitute in its place "unknown risk."  I don't want to be
guilty of the same tactics that so irk me when employed by others.  I
should always have someone proofread my correspondence before hitting
"send" when I'm feeling peevish.

 

Fred

 

From: Stevan Gressitt [mailto:gressitt at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 8:05 PM
To: Fredrick L. Miller
Cc: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: Re: [Pharmwaste] RE: Foam Alone: Do Furniture Flame Retardants
Save EnoughLives to Justify Their Environmental Damage?

 

Relative risk? Who offers a calculation?

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:36 AM, Fredrick L. Miller
<millerfl at tricity.wsu.edu> wrote:

"Susan Lundy, a spokesperson for Albemarle, who herself was nearly
burned as a child when her pajamas caught fire, says there's no
question. "You ask people who lose their children in fires, 'Do they
think it's valuable to have flame retardants in there?' I promise you,
they would say, 'Yes.'"

Oh, the children.  Well, that ends it.  There can be no further rational
debate.  The issue dies there.  Wave the bloody rag and terrify the
uneducated masses.  The chemical peddlers win.  They played the
"children" card first.  Nevermind the children are at far greater risk
from exposure to the chemicals.  It's much easier to paint a mental
picture of children burning and disfigured for life.  After all, if need
be they can always dig up the picture of the little girl from Vietnam
running naked with the last few rags of her clothing in flames from a
napalm attack.  It's real hard to conjure up such a viscerally impacting
image of the damage done by endocrine disruptors and carcinogens.

 

Fred Miller

Washington State University

College of Pharmacy

 

 

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of DeBiasi,
Deborah (DEQ)
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 8:08 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] Foam Alone: Do Furniture Flame Retardants Save
EnoughLives to Justify Their Environmental Damage? 

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-furniture-flame-reta
rdants-save-enough-lives-justify-environmental-damage
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-furniture-flame-ret
ardants-save-enough-lives-justify-environmental-damage&print=true> 

 

Permanent Address:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-furniture-flame-reta
rdants-save-enough-lives-justify-environmental-damage
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-furniture-flame-ret
ardants-save-enough-lives-justify-environmental-damage>  

Foam Alone: Do Furniture Flame Retardants Save Enough Lives to Justify
Their Environmental Damage? 

An obscure California law effectively sets flammability standards for
foam in the nation's furniture, but proposed new legislation claims
flame retardants don't prevent fires and could have negative health
impacts

By Erik Vance <http://www.scientificamerican.com/author.cfm?id=1645>   |
Monday, April 18, 2011


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-- 

Stevan Gressitt, M.D.
Faculty Associate, University of Maine Center on Aging
Academic Member, Athens Institute for Education and Research

Athens, Greece

Founding Director, International Institute for Pharmaceutical Safety
University of New England, College of Pharmacy
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences 
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine
716 Stevens Avenue 
Portland, Maine 04103
gressitt at gmail.com  
Cell: 207-441-0291 

www.benzos.une.edu <http://www.benzos.une.edu/>  

www.safemeddisposal.com <http://www.safemeddisposal.com/>  

 

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