The Ecology Center has released its semiannual car seat flame retardant report which tests a variety of popular car seats for flame retardants. Each year it is controversial. However, each year it seems to prompt the industry to make strides toward healthier car seats.
This year is no exception.
NOTE: Car seats in cars save lives. The safest place for child in a moving vehicle is in a rear-facing car seat in the backseat, properly installed, firmly strapped in with the chest clip at armpit level.
Highlights from the 2016 Ecology Center Car Seat Flame Retardant Study :
First-ever flame retardant-free car seat coming soon — In 2017, for the first time, a car seat marketed as free of FRs will be on the market produced by UPPABaby. The “Henry”, a new infant car seat in their “Mesa” line, leaves out chemical FRs in favor of a wool blend to meet regulations. The FR-free Henry will be available in the spring of next year.
Flame retardants are still widespread – Aside from the UPPAbaby seat, FRs were found in all of the car seats that were tested, and for the first time were found to be in widespread use in the fabrics of car seats.
Most car seats still contain brominated flame retardants (BFRs) — This is concerning, as brominated chemicals are typically persistent, bioaccumulative, and often toxic.Alternatives to BFRs have not been tested for toxicity — Manufacturers have stopped using some flame retardants with known hazards, but the health effects of many of the substitutes are unknown.
Tune in tonight to KPIX at 6pm for our full report on the study.
However, as usual, the Ecology Center study is raising a lot of questions, more than I could ever get into in a TV news story. So, here’s my #Reporter’sNotebook – a sort of Q&A addressing many of the things that didn’t make it into the news report.
A lot of this is “inside baseball,” so-to-speak, intended for people who have followed my coverage and have a basic understanding of the issue and the history flame retardants in car seats.
For those who don’t, I suggest you browse our continuing coverage. A year’s worth of investigations all on one page:
Ecology Center Car Seat Flame Retardant Q&A
Editor’s Note: I’ve had a lot of requests for background information so I wanted to get this information posted as soon as possible. I’m writing this on my phone while running Christmas errands with my toddler on my only day off this week. Please forgive typos. I will review and edit as time allows. #WorkingMom #NewsMom
Question: Why did the Ecology Center choose Britax & Maxi-Cosi as the top two seats?
The Britax Marathon ClickTight Covertible Car Seat (in Vibe), and the Maxi-Cosi Pria 70 Convertible Car Seat (blue base) were the only two car seats tested that did not contain any brominated flame retardants or chlorinated chemical elements in any component of the car seat.
The Maxi-Cosi fabric tested positive for one Phosperous-based retardant, Triethyl phosphate (TEP). Surprisingly, they found no retardants in the Maxi-Cosi foam. They found two Phosperous-based retardants in the Britax foam, TEP and Tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBEP). There were no retardants found in the Britax fabric.
Overall, Phosphorus-based retardants are believed to be safer than Chlorinated or Brominated retardants. However, scientists say that health-safety data is lacking and more research is needed.
Question: The Ecology center found a form of Tris in the Britax. Should I be concerned?
The form of Tris that was found in the Britax is a phosphorus-based chemical.
“Tris” is sort of like a brand name, but there are various versions and there have been many chemical iterations. Chlorinated Tris (TDCPP, TCPP, TPP) is likely the version that you’re most familiar with. One version, TDCPP, is listed as “known to cause cancer” by the state of California and any product sold in CA that that contains the chemical must have a warning label.
For the first time this year the study found no Chlorinated Tris in any car seat models tested.
According to the Ecology Center, the phosphate-based form of Tris found in the Britax does raise some health concerns. They found:
No studies on long-term toxicity or carcinogenicity. Anti-estrogenic and other hormone effects in vitro. TBEP was in 100% of indoor dust samples from houses in North America. Found in urine in adults and children and in breast milk.
World Health Organization says general health risk is low. Detected in air around the Great Lakes and in the Arctic.
However, the Ecology Center says it chose the Britax as one of its top two seats based on the company’s strides toward safer, greener solutions. Because Britax was one of only two car seats that did not contain any brominated retardants, it received a top honor.
Question: The Maxi-Cosi doesn’t have any flame retardants in the foam. How is that possible?
I don’t know, and neither does the Ecology Center. Foam is the most commonly treated element of the car seat because it is generally highly flammable. It is not clear how this foam passes the federal flammability standard without retardants.
I have reached out to them, and so has the Ecology Center, and neither of us have heard back.
The inside of the foam of this particular Maxi-Cosi does look different than most polyurethane foam we see in car seats. It appears it may be “laminated,” similar to the soon-to-be-released UppaBaby car seat that is advertised to be flame-retardant free (more on that below).
Keep in mind, the Ecology Center is only reporting what it found. It did not identify a flame retardant, or at least no known retardants, in the Maxi-Cosi foam.
They did find the phosapahte-based flame retardant Triethyl phosphate (TEP) in the Maxi-Cosi Fabric. TEP does not pose a significant health risk for humans according to the Ecology Center and they found no other flame retardants anywhere else in the seat.
At first glance, it appears this is the most flame retardant free toddler seat on the market. However without verification from the company there is no way to confirm that.
Question: So does that mean all Britax & Maxi-Cosi car seats contain the same chemicals?
Probably not. We have found that flame retardants and chemicals vary from year to year, model to model, color to color and fabric to fabric within the same brands. We know that one of the most concerning flame retardants, Chlorniated Tris (TDCPP), was found in only certain models of the popular “green” Orbit Baby and Clek car seats.
The point of the study is not to ensure that any car seat you buy from these manufactures will only have these chemicals. It is to highlight car seat companies that are making green strides.
Question: What parts of the car seat contain flame retardants?
This year the Ecology Center tested 300 car seat components including the hard plastic, cup holders, warning labels, Velcro, fabric, etc. Surprisingly, they found flame retardants in many components where, according to the Ecology Center, flame retardants “would provide no apparent safety benefit.”
Also surprising, this year they found many car seat fabrics were treated with flame retardants, including the Maxi-Cosi. Flame retardants in car seats fabrics are not as well studied as those in the foam. While many fabrics are naturally flame resistant, the foam that is commonly used inside car seat covers is flammable and generally needs to be treated to pass the required federal open flame test.
Many of the car seat fabrics, which are in direct contact with the child’s skin, tested positive this year for concerning brominated retardants.
Question: The Ecology Center said that, for the first time, they did not find any chlorinated flame retardants or concerning heavy metals like lead or arsenic. Why does Table 10 show that they all contain lead and chlorine? Should I be concerned?
According to the Ecology Center, no.
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Let’s start with lead. The allowable level for lead in toys, set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is 100 ppb. All of the car seats tested far below the allowable limit.
Chlorine is a bit more complicated. The Ecology Center is not concerned about chlorine specifically, they are testing for chlorine as a component of a flame retardant. They explain that it is not the chlorine itself that is a health concern; rather they say it is the chemical makeup of the chlorinated flame retardants.
In past studies, they set a threshold of chlorine to identify retardants. They found that for the most part, if a product had a certain amount of chlorine in it, then it would later test positive as a chlorinated flame retardant. They determined that a chlorine presence at lower levels could have been due to a variety of other things, like salt, exposure, etc. Low levels of chlorine in and of itself do not constitute a health risk, according to the Ecology Center.
It’s worth noting that the Ecology Center did find relatively high levels of chlorine in a warning label on a Clek car seat. However, there was not enough mass in the label to test for a retardant specifically. Clek insisted that the chlorine was not the result of a chlorinated flame retardant and provided additional testing data to the Ecology Center.
The Ecology Center is satisfied that there are no chlorinated retardants in the Clek car seat label and are calling it undetermined chlorine. In an email response to me, Clek said:
To answer your question about the unidentified chlorine: a product can have free chemicals, like chlorine, without it being a flame retardant. In our regular on-going 3rd party testing, free chlorine is also identified, but not as a flame retardant. The testing completed by the Ecology Centre confirms the same (page 12) – “We did not identify FRs in Clek’s fabric..”.
For more on Clek’s commitment to be free of brominated and chlorinated retardants see:
The company responded effectively and immediately when we notify it that we found TDCPP in one of their car seats last year. They identified a small production that was affected and immediately issued a voluntary recall.
Question: Why did Clek and Orbit get moderate recommendations?
Aside from the chlorine in the label, Clek tested positive for only phosphorus-based chemicals. Similarly, aside from a brominated retardant found in a piece of Velcro, the Orbit car seat also contained only phosphorus-based chemicals.
The Ecology Center gave Clek and Orbit moderate recommendations, their second highest category, because they say they are two of the companies making the greatest strides to be free of halogenated flame retardants.
Note: Orbit Baby Recently announced it will no longer be manufacturing car seats and is selling of its current stock at a discount.
Question: Which car seat would you buy, Julie?
People ask me this all the time. I won’t answer the question publicly for many reasons, not the least of which, I’m a reporter. I don’t do endorsements.
I have previously reported on, and purchased, both the Orbit and Clek car seats based on rave reviews from green scientists and experts in the industry. Both of my daughter’s Orbit and Clek car seats later tested positive for TDCPP. Clearly, there is no way to be certain of what is actually in your car seat unless you test it. Also See:
That said, it appears that according to the Ecology Center’s tests, that the Maxi-Cosi Pria 70 Convertible Car Seat (blue base) is the only car seat model we know of, currently on the market, that does not contain any flame retardants of notable concern. However, it is still unclear how they pass the current flammability standard without retardants in their foam.
By the looks of the sample that the Ecology Center tested, they may also be laminating the foam like UppaBaby plans to do next year. However, unlike Maxi, Uppa says their fabric will also be flame-retardant free.
Question: UppaBaby announced it is releasing a 2017 car seat without any flame retardants. How can their foam pass the flammability standard? And how do we know they are telling the truth?
The Ecology Center, and other trusted researchers who I spoke with on background, have independently tested samples of the upcoming 2017 UppaBaby Mesa Henry infant car seat. I asked for a sample, but UppaBaby said they did not have any immediately available.
I’ve spoken at length with the company and third-party experts who have tested the product. By all reports, it appears UppaBaby has engineered a way to pass the current flammability standards without flame retardants.
In simple terms, the federal flammability standard requires that each individual component of a car seat pass an open flame test. Foam is flammable and on its own cannot generally pass without added flame retardants. UppaBaby’s naturally flame-resistant-wool-blend batting is not flammable and will pass the test.
In most car seats, the foam is separate from the fabric or sewn into the fabric after the fact, so they are considered two separate components.
UppaBaby has laminated the wool batting to the foam. My understanding is that because it cannot be separated, the wool-laminated-foam is considered one component and can be tested as one component. Instead of directly applying the test flame to the foam interior, the flame would be applied to the naturally fire resistant wool batting exterior.
Question: So, a car seat can meet the flammability standard without flame retardants. Does the current flammability standard still need to be changed?
Yes, according to the Ecology Center, manufacturers, consumer groups, fire scientists and green scientists (groups that don’t general agree on things).
Federal regulators have long contended that the standard can be met without flame retardants, but manufactures argued that it would be too expensive for mass-production. That still appears to be the case.
UppaBaby has demonstrated that companies, who really care, can find a way to make a FR-free car seat under the current regulations. However, it is costly. As a result, UppaBay will only make one model of their car seats that is FR free. One model. One fabric. And there will not be an FR-free seat for toddlers, infants only.
If there is a high demand and it becomes a lucrative line for the company, it would make sense that UppaBaby would expand their FR-free engineering to other car seats.
However, the car seat is expensive. At $350 is unlikely that most American families, especially those with multiple kids, can afford to run out and buy the first FR-free car seat.
For that matter, the top ranking car seats in the Ecology Center study range in price from $250- $450. None are priced to be accessible for most American families.
Jeff Gerhardt of the Ecology Center stresses that “It is a matter of basic fundamental justice that every child in the country have access to an affordable healthy car seat.”
Congressman Jared Huffman introduced legislation that would force regulators to update the flammability standard for car seats, similar to a recent revision to the California furniture flammability standard. The standard relies on smolder resistant outer fabrics or barrier fabrics. Flame retardants would no longer be necessary.
The Ecology Center, leading consumer groups, fire scientists and green scientists are all supporting the legislation that was introduced into the House Energy and Commerce committee in May. However, it has been largely ignored.
The popular blogger, Natural Baby Mama, has launched a change.org petition asking the Committee Chairman Fred Upton to bring it up for a vote.
According to the Ecology Center and manufacturers that I’ve spoken with, the legislation would allow car seat manufactures to almost immediately begin manufacturing affordable flame retardant-free car seats.
In the meantime, for those who can afford it, it appears that the first flame-retardant-free car seat will soon be on the market. The UppaBaby is expected in early 2017. But again, only one model, one fabric, and for infants only.
Got more questions? Ask them below or on our Facebook page.
I have asked the UppaBaby CEO to sit down with me for a Facebook live interview where youcan join in and as questions. Follow this post on Facebook for upcoming details.
The Ecology Center Car Seat Flame Retardant Report... Your Questions Answered. The Ecology Center has released its semiannual car seat flame retardant report which tests a variety of popular car seats for flame retardants.
