Check out more information on our Environmental Health work in Michigan:

• Green Chemistry
• Toxic Toys
• Home Safe Home parties

Clean Water Action urges the Michigan Legislature to:

Protect Children From Pharmaceutical Lindane!

Lindane is the active ingredient in some products used to treat head lice and scabies. Health professional organizations throughout Michigan have supported action to phase out pharmaceutical use of lindane in Michigan. HB 4569 allows use of lindane in pharmaceutical products in Michigan only under the supervision of a physician in his or her office.

What do government agencies and experts say about lindane?

Michigan Department Of Community Health:

• "The Michigan Department of Community Health does not recommend the use of Lindane to treat scabies patients."1
• The same is true for head lice: "The State of Michigan does not recommend using Lindane."2
• Health professional organizations in Michigan have supported a lindane phase-out:
• Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
• Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners
• Michigan Nurses Association
• Michigan Pharmacists Association
• Michigan Association of School Nurses
• Wayne County Medical Society of Southeast Michigan
• For more information download the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health's fact sheet.

Take Action: Tell your lawmakers to support restrictions on lindane.

Ban the flame retardant, deca-BDE!

For years, manufacturers have added chemicals to plastics and fabrics so they won't catch on fire or burn easily when exposed to flame or high heat. Some of the more widely used of these additives are polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs. HB 4465 has been introduced in Michigan to phase out deca-BDE in residential furniture, mattresses, TVs, and computers.

Protect Children, Fire Fighters and the Great Lakes

Limit Toxic Flame-Retardants

Support HB 4465!

Fighting fires does not have to have toxic consequences. PBDEs, flame-retardants that are rapidly accumulating in our bodies and the Great Lakes, have been found to be toxic to animals and may threaten our own health. Safe, affordable alternatives are available.

Are Toxic Flame-Retardants The Next Pcbs?

• PBDEs - polybrominated diphenyl ethers, commonly used as flame-retardants - are added to textiles, foam products, and plastics to make them difficult to burn. There are three commercial forms of PBDEs: penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE. Deca-BDE is often added to drapes, carpets, furniture upholstery, and the plastic casings of electronics.
• In 2004, the Michigan Legislature banned manufacturing, processing and distribution of materials containing more than 0.1% penta-BDE and octa-BDE, respectively. However, under certain circumstances, deca can break down into more toxic forms of PBDEs, including the banned octa-BDE.
• Deca continues to be used heavily in the United States. Over 40% of all deca produced worldwide is used in North America.
• PBDEs are structurally very similar to PCBs, chemicals once favored by industry but ultimately banned in the 1970s because of their high toxicity. Like PCBs, PBDEs are extremely persistent in the environment and can accumulate in the fatty tissues of living organisms.

Toxic Levels Are Rising

• PBDE levels "in human tissues in North America have increased significantly over time, and are much higher compared to levels in Europe or Japan."
• Limited studies indicate that children accumulate higher levels of PBDEs than adults.
• Lake Michigan salmon were found to contain PBDEs at levels above 100 parts per billion, "one of the world's highest concentrations for salmon in open water." PBDE levels in Great Lakes walleye and lake trout rose exponentially from 1980 to 2000, doubling every 3-4 years.
• Workers who recycle, repair, and maintain computers have very high levels of PBDEs.
• In the United States, PBDEs have been found in the breast milk of women at levels 10 to 100 times higher than those found in Europe.

Health Impacts

• Learning and Memory: Exposure to deca-BDE in mice and rats during brain development "can give rise to irreversible changes in adult brain function."
• Reproductive: Rats exposed to PBDEs experienced a delayed onset of puberty and reproductive development.
• Cancer: Rodents who ate deca-BDE developed liver tumors, causing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to classify deca as a "possible human carcinogen."
• Thyroid: PBDEs can disrupt homeostatic thyroid levels in mice. Decreased concentrations of the thyroid hormone can lead to decreased IQ in offspring.

Fire Fighters At Risk

• The Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union has endorsed HB 4465 to help protect fire fighters from dec-BDE.
• The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) supports legislation banning deca-BDE as "a step in the right direction for improving the health and safety of our fire fighters. IAFF states: "Many studies involving fire fighters exposed to these and other toxic gases during active fire fighting, overhaul, and long term exposure from these chemicals penetrating gear, have found that fire fighters have a much greater risk of contracting cancer, heart and lung disease, and other debilitating diseases. While we support the concept of flame retardant chemicals, there are alternatives that do not contain bromine or chlorine and are much safer for fire fighters than PBDEs."

Safer Alternatives Are Widely Used

• Many electronics companies already or will soon meet fire safety standards without using deca-BDE including Dell, HP, Toshiba, Apple, Sony, Panasonic, Phillips, and Samsung.
• Mattress companies Sealy, Simmons, and Serta do not use deca-BDE in their products. IKEA sells only PBDE-free office furniture.
• Michigan-based La-Z-Boy Incorporated and Steelcase Furniture do not use deca-BDE in their products.
• Michigan-based Herman Miller states that deca-BDE is an "unhealthy/dangerous fire retardant chemical and one that is definitely not used in our product offering." Their reasoning includes that deca-BDE "has been traced in animals like polar bears, fish" and "has appeared in mother's breast milk."
• Bans Gaining Momentum
• Michigan and nine other states already regulate the use of penta-BDE and octa-BDE. Industries voluntarily withdrew the manufacture of penta-BDE by 2005 because of evidence that the chemical may be toxic and traces were found in breast milk.
• Washington State and Maine recently banned deca for many uses.
• A Michigan Department of Environmental Quality advisory committee recommends "legislation banning Deca-BDE...contingent on the availability of a safe alternative."

Michigan legislators can protect children, firefighters and our Great Lakes from deca-BDE!
Support HB 4465 to phase out deca-BDE in mattresses and residential furniture
by 2009 and in televisions and computers by 2012.

Organizations that support HB 4465 (partial list):

• Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union
• American Academy of Pediatrics (Michigan Chapter)
• Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)
• Association for Children's Mental Health
• Clean Water Action
• Clean Water Fund
• Clinton County Family Resource Center
• Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice
• East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC)
• Ecology Center
• Environment Michigan
• Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan
• Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan
• Local Motion
• Michigan Coalition for Children and Families
• Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
• Michigan Environmental Council
• Michigan Nurses Association
• Science and Environmental Health Network
• National Organizations that support restricting or banning PBDEs (partial list):
• American Academy of Pediatrics (Leadership Forum)
• American Public Health Association
• Breast Cancer Fund
• International Association of Fire Fighters

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on Deca-BDE

Download statements (pdf) excerpted from "Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers: A Scientific Review with Risk Characterization and Recommendations," a May 2007 draft report by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Toxics Steering Group.
The full report is available online (pdf)

Recently the International Association of Fire Fighters, an organization based in Washington, D.C., issued a statement advocating banning the sale of PBDE containing products. See their statement (pdf).

Take Action: Tell your lawmakers to support restrictions on deca-BDE.