Blog
Zhou Zhou Hamsters, Nursing Pillows, and Numbers
Guest Blogger
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Arlene Blum, Green Science Policy Institute: There was a huge uproar last week about 90ppm of the flame retardant antimony in Zhou Zhou toy hamsters, a most popular Christmas toy. The story was on NPR, CNN, and more.
The levels of antimony in this toy can be compared with levels of:
30,000 ppm of flame retardants in the foam used for nursing pillows, high chairs, and strollers;
75,000 ppm of antimony in TV enclosures; and,
150,000 ppm for DecaBDE in plastic enclosures.
The antimony in the toy hamsters was determined not to migrate out and cause a health problem for children. However, the flame retardants in baby products and TV enclosures do migrate into dust and people.
It’s imperative that new parents realize it is vital to identify the flame retardants that are used in baby products. Each of us can share this information with parents of young children to help protect them from this unnecessary exposure. And, you can also help us better understand the flame retardants in children’s products by participating in a new study being conducted by the Green Policy Institute.
We are seeking donations of one inch square pieces of foam only from the baby products listed below. These must have been purchased in the US or Canada.
Strollers
Nursing pillows
Infant carriers/car seats
High chairs
Bassinets/portable crib mattresses (not regular crib mattresses)
Rocking/nursing chairs
Baby harnesses/carriers (e.g. Baby Bjorns)
Baby seats (often are vibrating seats)
Baby wedges
Baby head rests
Changing pads
Baby swings
What We Will Do:
Heather Stapleton will analyze the foam samples in a chemistry laboratory at Duke University to determine if flame retardant chemicals are in the foam, and if so, which types of chemicals and how much is present by weight of the foam. We will provide the results once the study is completed (estimated summer 2010).
If you are interested in donating one or more foam samples, please email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I will send you information on how to collect and return the sample.
More information
Our goals are to determine what chemicals are being used, what products have these chemicals added to them, and whether or not a CA State label can be a screening tool for determining if the product contains these chemicals. From our previous study we learned that chlorinated tris or TDCPP, a chemical that has been identified as a probable human carcinogen by both the World Health Organization and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, is commonly added to the foam in furniture to meet the CA furniture flammability standard (TB 117). We have some evidence that it is also being used in foam in baby products and we would like to know how often such chemical flame retardants are used in baby products.
These products do not pose a fire safety hazard and the chemicals, which are potentially impacting children's health, are of limited benefit in reducing fire risk. Smoke alarms, sprinkler systems, and fire-safe cigarettes are much more effective in reducing fire death and injury.
Learn more at the Green Science Policy Institute.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.
Posted by Living A Whole Life on 12/17/2009 at 04:41 AM
Awesome! I can’t wait to hear more about this!
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Posted by Abigael on 12/19/2009 at 09:06 PM
Anyone hear of the Pump Station? I love that place, they have all sorts of products and stand by them. They test everything so its safe. It helped me a lot.