LD 1568: An Act to Clarify Maine’s Phase-out of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (i.e. “DECA”)
End of session update:
Legislators took important steps to help protect Maine people and the environment from toxic chemicals. Most significantly, they adopted An Act to Clarify Maine’s Phase-out of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (LD 1568). This bill closes a loophole in the 2007 law that bans the toxic chemical “deca” from being used as a flame retardant in consumer electronics, furniture, and mattresses. Deca interferes with brain development and can lead to learning disabilities. Although safer alternatives exist, deca manufacturers have been relentless in seeking new applications.
"When we learned that the chemical companies that manufacture deca are using it in plastic shipping pallets, we immediately worked with other groups and key legislators on a bill to block it,” says NRCM Toxics Project Director and Legislative Coordinator Matt Prindiville.
With enactment of LD 1568, sponsored by House Speaker Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven), deca in shipping pallets must be phased out no later than January 1, 2013, in favor of safer alternatives. The law also prevents manufacturers from using other toxic brominated or chlorinated flame retardants. NRCM worked with several pallet manufacturers and allied groups to broker an agreement on the final language.
We also secured passage of a reauthorization bill for Maine’s Toxics Use Reduction Act (LD 1423). With enactment of this bill, introduced by Rep. Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell) , Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection is required to identify priority chemicals in the industrial sector and create and implement action plans to reduce and/or eliminate their use. The Legislature also adopted a bill that will help fund the safer chemicals law enacted two years ago that will promote the identification and phase-out of the most harmful chemicals found in consumer products sold in Maine.
Read NRCM's testimony on this bill.
Update: Natural Resources Committee Votes Unanimously to Ban Toxic Deca's Use in Plastic Shipping Pallets and Require Safer Alternatives 2/12/2010
DECA is a toxic flame retardant linked to learning disabilities and other serious health effects.
- DECA is a persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic chemical (PBT), meaning that it’s long-lived in the environment, builds up in the food chain and is toxic to humans and wildlife.
- DECA steadily migrates from the products to which it was added and builds up in the fat tissue of people and animals (1). Children are particularly at risk.
- DECA delays brain development and causes adult learning and behavior problems in lab animals exposed early in life. In mice, DECA produced irreversible changes in brain function that worsened with age in adults (2).
Maine lawmakers have already banned DECA and other dangerous brominated flame retardants from use in many consumer products.
- In 2004, the Legislature banned two of these hazardous brominated flame retardants in all consumer products.
- In 2007, the Legislature overwhelmingly voted to ban DECA from use in consumer electronics, furniture and mattresses – what was then thought to be the vast majority of the market for this toxic compound.
DECA manufacturers have now found another way to sell their dangerous product - in the plastic pallets used to ship and store produce and other food products.
- DECA manufacturers are now selling millions of pounds of DECA to the plastic pallet industry.
- It is estimated that more DECA will be used in plastic pallets than was ever used in electronics and furniture prior to the 2007 ban in several states and the European Union.
DECA is still DECA. It’s an unstable chemical that will quickly leach into the food, air, and water nearby – ending up in humans and wildlife and leading to serious health effects.
- DECA degrades into other brominated chemicals that are even more toxic and easily absorbed by humans and wildlife (3).
- The levels of brominated chemicals in people’s bodies are doubling every 2 to 5 years, and are 40 times higher in North America than on other continents.
It’s time to close the DECA loopholes so we don’t have to guess where this toxic chemical will turn up next.
- The Maine Legislature needs to ban DECA from food pallets and all other consumer-related products.
- Fortunately, there are effective flame retardants that are far safer and do not build up in people and animals and persist in the environment.
For more information, please contact Matt Prindiville at mprindiville@nrcm.org or 207-430-0144.
References:
1 RISING LEVELS: Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Brominated Flame Retardants: Report to the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources, 122nd Legislature, February 2005; w/ Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention, February 2006.
2 DECA TOXICITY: Cressey MA, Reeve EA, Rice DC, and Markowski VP, Behavioral Impairments Produced by Developmental Exposure to the Flame Retardant decaBDE, presented at the annual meeting of the Behavioral Toxicology Society, September 16-17, 2006.
3 TOXIC BYPRODUCTS: Stapleton H, Brominated Flame Retardants: Assessing DecaBDE Debromination in the Environment, prepared for the EPHA-EN, May 2006. Heather Stapleton, PhD is an Environmental Chemist at Duke University.
