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<TITLE>Chemical ban puts industry on the defensive - Flame retardant not 'shown to be harmful'</TITLE>
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<P><B><FONT FACE="Arial">SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER</FONT></B><BR>
<A HREF="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/311845_pbdes17.html"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman">http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/311845_pbdes17.html</FONT></U></A><BR>
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<B></B><B></B><B><FONT SIZE=4 FACE="Arial">Chemical ban puts industry on the defensive</FONT></B><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"> </FONT>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Flame retardant not 'shown to be harmful'</FONT></B>
<BR><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Tuesday, April 17, 2007</FONT></I>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">By LISA STIFFLER</FONT></B><BR>
<FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">P-I REPORTER</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Stung by the Legislature's groundbreaking ban of a controversial fire retardant, the chemical industry isn't giving up. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Even with Gov. Chris Gregoire's approval all but assured -- she's scheduled to sign the legislation today -- it still didn't extinguish the chemical manufacturers' fight. They've run full-page ads in the state's largest newspapers. They wrote a letter to Gregoire urging a veto. Since 2005, they've spent more than $220,000 here lobbying against a ban. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Why the big spending? Because there is potentially more at stake than prohibitions on flame retardants called PBDEs in Washington furniture, televisions and computers.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">A ban here could be the beginning of the end for PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers. It could mark a move toward more aggressive protections by local governments -- at a time when the federal government is largely ineffectual in its regulation of long-used but potentially dangerous industrial chemicals. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"The larger story is that there is a highly organized and very well-funded effort to change the way in which chemicals are regulated around the world," said John Kyte, spokesman for the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum, a trade group representing PBDE manufacturers. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">That effort, Kyte said, is being led by environmentalists and is unwarranted. The PBDE industry asserted in the ads and letter to Gregoire that the chemical being banned -- called deca-BDE, or just deca -- "has not been shown to be harmful to humans or the environment." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Kyte said chemical exposure levels in people and animals is too low to be of concern. Deca provides a cheap, effective way to make countless household, transportation and industrial items more resistant to fires and that a better alternative is not available, industry representatives said. The ban could result in more fires, they warn. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Many scientists, environmentalists and state officials disagree. PBDEs are found everywhere from Columbia River mud to salmon to house cats to peregrine falcons. They're found in humans at wide-ranging but generally low levels -- though in some people it approaches concentrations that worry health officials. In experiments with rodents, deca can cause problems with intelligence and motor skills. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"The industry that makes deca and PBDEs is freaking out because they lost so severely in Washington state and other states will follow," said Laurie Valeriano, policy director for the Washington Toxics Coalition, an environmental group. "It really is a message from Washington state and policymakers that we won't accept chemicals that build up in our bodies and our children."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">In the past, restrictions on chemicals such as PCBs and mercury have come after devastating human injury and widespread pollution. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">In the case of PBDEs, the state is being more cautious, said Ted Sturdevant, the Ecology Department's director of governmental relations. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"We're not there yet where a lot of kids are getting brain damage and there's a lot of cleanup (because of deca)," Sturdevant said. "So we're going to save a lot of money and a lot of kids." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">One reason the state is taking this approach is that federal regulators have been so lax.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The Environmental Protection Agency -- the federal department responsible for this area of chemical safety -- "does not routinely assess the human health and environmental risks of existing chemicals and faces challenges in obtaining the information necessary to do so," according to the Government Accountability Office, which does investigations for Congress. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">If a chemical is found to pose a risk, "EPA officials say the ... legal standards are so high that they have generally discouraged EPA from using its authorities to ban or restrict the manufacture or use of chemicals," stated an August 2006 GAO report. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"The federal governmental is failing miserably in protecting us from toxic chemicals, and the states are no longer going to sit around," Valeriano said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">In response to an earlier GAO report, EPA officials stated they were "proud of the progress" the agency was making in regulating chemicals and that they had reviewed thousands of new chemicals -- restricting the use of some -- before they entered the marketplace. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">PBDE bans have been proposed this year in California, Connecticut, New York, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine and Montana. The Washington deca ban is limited to mattresses beginning next year and could be extended to TVs, computers and upholstered residential furniture in 2011 provided an alternative flame retardant is approved. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Nationally, the PBDE trade group has spent more than $300,000 since 2005 lobbying against restrictions. This month, industry-funded TV and newspaper ads ran in Maine. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Yet at least two of the PBDE manufacturers -- Ablemarle Corp. of Richmond, Va., and Chemtura Corp. of Middlebury, Conn. -- also make some of the leading flame retardant alternatives for deca. They'd still have a piece of the market. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">That's not the point, Kyte said. Deca is safe and shouldn't become the "poster child" for stricter regulations just because a chemical is detected in people or the environment. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"It creates concerns and fears that aren't warranted, and it leads in public settings to poor decision making," Kyte said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">State officials said the risk is clear. </FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">"To a certain extent, we're precautious about everything," Sturdevant said. "The question is where to draw the line. This (ban) is about drawing the line in a more preventive place."</FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT SIZE=4 FACE="Times New Roman">LEARN MORE </FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT SIZE=4 FACE="Times New Roman">ABOUT PBDEs</FONT></B>
<BR><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Read the P-I's special report about chemical flame retardants: </FONT><A HREF="http://goto.seattlepi.com/309169"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman">goto.seattlepi.com/309169</FONT></U><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">HYPERLINK "http://"</FONT></A>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Deborah L. DeBiasi</FONT>
<BR><B><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Email: dldebiasi@deq.virginia.gov</FONT></B>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">WEB site address: </FONT><A HREF="file://www.deq.virginia.gov"><U></U><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">www.deq.virginia.gov</FONT></U></A>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Virginia Department of Environmental Quality</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Office of Water Permit Programs</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218</FONT><B></B><B><I> <FONT COLOR="#FF0000" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">(NEW!)</FONT></I></B>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">PH: 804-698-4028</FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman">FAX: 804-698-4032</FONT>
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