Is a Fire Retardant Stain Additive Safe?

The threat of fire to your home is a very real one. Every year in the USA, residential home fires cause over $7 billion of damage. Fires occur in about 366,000 homes. You don't want your home to be one of them! But what can you do about it? You've heard of products like a fire retardant stain additive, but what is this really? And is something like this safe?

Fire retardants are a chemical substance used in commercial and consumer products. This includes things like furniture, building materials, and electronics. They are used so these products meet the flammability standards put forth by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Inorganic fire retardants slow down the process of decomposition and release of flammable gases. This type of fire retardants are often found in paint, adhesive, wire and cables, and fabric coatings.

The federal flammability standards were first created in the US Flammable Fabrics Act in 1953. It was originally put in place to regulate the manufacture of highly flammable clothing after a series of horrific deaths of several children wearing rayon in the 1940s. It was modified in 1967 to include furniture, foam, plastic, and other materials used for clothing and conventional building materials and furnishings. Clearly, there was a need for such oversight. Today, fire retardants are commonly found in electronics, building insulation, polyurethane foam, and hundreds of products throughout an average American household.

By definition, fire retardants are simply chemicals that have been designed to reduce the flammability of commercial and consumer products. They sound new and fancy, but they aren't a recent invention at all. In fact, flame retardant coating has been used for decades in the USA and across the world. While fire retardants do minimize the risk of fire in many consumer goods, some classes of fire retardants are harmful to the environment and human health. It's important that you do your due diligence and learn what you can about the industry as a whole and the best products within it.

Fire retardants enjoy widespread use, so they must be regulated and studied. Flame retardants are subject to review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other governmental agencies. During its review of data on flame retardant chemicals, EPA identified approximately 50 flame retardant chemicals that are unlikely to pose a risk to human health. Similarly, the European Union conducted a thorough evaluation Tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) , a flame retardant used in electronics. The evaluation did not identify any health effects, and consumer exposure was deemed insignificant. A 2013 Review of TBBPA by the Canadian government concluded that “The Government of Canada has also concluded that TBBPA, TBBPA bis (2-hydroxyethyl ether) and TBBPA bis (allyl ether) are not harmful to human health at current levels of exposure.”

That being said, some other chemicals have been found to correlate with negative health effects. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working with polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) manufacturers to voluntarily phase out the use of PBDEs since 2004.