Senator Durbin Holds Hearing on Brominated Flame Retardants

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) held a hearing on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 regarding the question:

AreConsumers Adequately Protected from Flammability of Upholstered Furniture?  Hearing on the Effectiveness of FurnitureFlammability Standards and Flame Retardant Chemicals.

Durbin's concern stems from a recent Chicago Tribune investigative series that suggested the flame retardant industry had misled regulators on both the effectiveness and safety of a class of brominated flame retardants called PBDEs. The Senator is a strong supporter of overhauling the 26-year old TSCA law and is a co-sponsor of the Safe Chemicals Act introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).


Scheduled witnesses at the July 17th hearing were:

 

Panel I

·        The Honorable Inez Tenenbaum, Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission.

·        James J. Jones, Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency.

Panel II

·        August (Gus) Schaefer, Sr., Vice President and Chief Safety Officer, Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.

·        Andy Counts, CEO, American Home Furnishings Alliance.

·        Peter Van Dorpe, Chief of the Training Division for Chicago Fire Department.

More information on the hearing can be found here.