
Petition for rulemaking filed to update car flammability standard
By onLegal
Consumer Reports (CR), the Green Science Policy Institute, and the International Association of Fire Fighters with the support of 68 organizations and more than 46,000 consumers have filed a petition for rulemaking calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to update its flammability standard for car interiors and child car seats.
To meet the standard (FMVSS 302), automakers add flame retardant chemicals to seat foam and other interior materials. According to research by Duke University, the Green Science Policy Institute, and the University of Toronto, the chemicals are often known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and neurotoxins.
CR previously delivered its consumer petition and a letter from 70 additional organizations to NHTSA headquarters urging the update but received no response.
Upon receipt, the agency has 120 days to make a decision.
A peer-reviewed study conducted by Duke University, the Green Science Policy Institute, and the University of Toronto tested 101 personal vehicles across 22 brands. The study revealed the air inside all tested cars was polluted with harmful flame retardants.
The most prevalent flame retardant, found in all but one of the tested vehicles and nearly half of the foam samples, is tris (1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), which the National Toxicology Program recently linked to cancer in rodents, according to the study.
Other flame retardants include TDCIPP and TCEP, which have been on California’s Proposition 65 List as carcinogens for decades, according to the organizations.
A press release from the Green Science Policy Institute states that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its TCEP risk evaluation, stating that “TCEP poses an unreasonable risk of injury to human health and the environment [and] has the potential to cause kidney cancer, damage the nervous system and kidneys, and harm fertility.”
The institute has highlighted a lack of data demonstrating a fire-safety benefit from meeting the FMVSS 302 standard, the release states.
“When cars catch fire, the resulting emissions can be especially harmful due to the presence of flame retardants, for both vehicle occupants and firefighters,” the release states. “In a recent statement, the International Association of Fire Fighters said that ‘…these harmful chemicals do little to prevent fires for most uses and instead make the blazes smokier and more toxic for victims, and especially for first responders.’ This is an important and often underappreciated effect of flame retardant usage, especially this January, firefighter cancer awareness month.”
Gabe Knight, Consumer Reports senior safety policy analyst, said it’s unacceptable that consumers are exposed in their vehicles every day “to chemicals long known to be carcinogenic.”
Arlene Blum, Green Science Policy Institute executive director, added, “Everyone who rides in a car is needlessly exposed to cancer-causing, neurotoxic flame retardant chemicals because of an outdated flammability standard. We hope the incoming administration will support the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in modernizing their 1971 standard so we can have cars that are both fire-safe and healthy.”
In addition to the thousands of consumers who signed the petition, leading toxicologist Linda Birnbaum and renowned Boston firefighter Jay Fleming publicly called on NHTSA to reevaluate the standard.
“With improved flammability standards and vehicle design, we can better protect people from both fire and chemical hazards,” they concluded in a joint commentary, according to the release.
“Switching from one flame retardant to another will only perpetuate the problem. Instead, FMVSS 302 should be updated to reflect current fire statistics, vehicle technologies, and knowledge of flame retardant health harms,” said Lydia Jahl, senior scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute, in the release.
Learn more here about reducing individual exposure and recommendations to reduce flame retardant chemicals in vehicles for automobile manufacturers, NHTSA, and other policymakers.
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