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Advisories - program content screened and verified. Scientists
at Silent Spring Institute have found that flame retardants in
common household products like upholstered furniture, textiles,
and electronics migrate into household dust, and from there,
into our bodies. The Chicago Tribune has reported that the
average American is born with the highest recorded levels of
flame retardants among infants in the world. The chemicals are
linked to cancer, changes in DNA, hormone disruption, lowered
IQ, decreased fertility, and hyperactivity. Such links are
denied by the chemical industry, which has lobbied for years to
get these chemicals into consumer products, backed by the
tobacco industry, which promoted the flame retardants to avoid
making cigarettes without accelerants. The Silent Spring study
was published on November 28th in the journal Environmental
Science & Technology. With Ruthann Rudel, senior scientist of
environmental toxicology and director of re