I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2934 

To amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 to ban 

flame retardant chemicals from use in resilient filling materials in children’s products. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 1, 2013 

Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. MOORE, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. RANGEL, and Ms. MENG) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 

of 2008 to ban flame retardant chemicals from use in 

resilient filling materials in children’s products. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Decrease Unsafe Tox5 ins Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The Consumer Product Safety Improvement 

9 Act of 2008 establishes safety requirements for chilVerDate Mar 15 2010 23:37 Aug 06, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2934.IH H2934

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1 dren’s products. The Act identifies lead and 

2 phthalates as chemicals of concern to be reduced or 

3 eliminated in children’s products due to their tox4 icity. Certain flame retardants used in children’s 

5 products should also be considered banned haz6 ardous substances and eliminated from use in resil7 ient filling materials in certain cushioned children’s 

8 products. 

9 (2) Organohalogen and organophosphorous 

10 flame retardants are used in some children’s cush11 ioned products to meet various flammability stand12 ards. In a 2011 study published in Environmental 

13 Science and Technology, over 80 percent of the chil14 dren’s cushioned products tested were found to con15 tain at least one flame retardant chemical. 

16 (3) Children in the United States have some of 

17 the highest levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers 

18 (PBDEs) in their bodies globally. In fact, toddlers 

19 have three times the blood levels of their mothers of 

20 the toxic flame retardant pentaBDE. 

21 (4) Research has shown that flame retardants 

22 have been associated with cancer, immune, and en23 docrine disruption, developmental impairment, birth 

24 defects, and reproductive dysfunction. 

25 Organohalogen and organophosphorous flame 


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1 retardants are often toxic, and are associated with 

2 reduced IQ (similar to lead poisoning), hyperactivity, 

3 reduced fertility, birth defects, and hormonal 

4 changes. 

5 (5) According to the Federal Centers for Dis6 ease Control and Prevention, infants and children 

7 are especially vulnerable to exposure to flame 

8 retardants through ingestion of contaminated dust 

9 via hand-to-mouth contact. Children crawl and play 

10 on floors, put objects in their mouths, and are gen11 erally closer to the ground where dust settles. 

12 (6) Flame retardant chemicals in children’s 

13 cushioned products are unnecessary. Studies show 

14 that there is no measurable fire safety benefit to 

15 California’s Furniture Flammability Standard Tech16 nical Bulletin (TB117). Also, these products contain 

17 small amounts of resilient filling material compared 

18 to adult upholstered furniture, and thus do not 

19 present a significant fire hazard as a fuel source. 

20 (7) Strollers, infant carriers, and nursing pil21 lows have been exempt from California’s TB117 

22 since 2010 and the proposed revision of California’s 

23 Flammability Standard (TB117–2013) includes a 

24 provision to exempt 17 more baby and infant prod25 ucts from the standard. This is due to the State 


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1 agency’s understanding that these products do not 

2 present a significant fire hazard. 

3 (8) Banning the use of flame retardant chemi4 cals in children’s products would help reduce unnec5 essary health risks to children associated with expo6 sure to chemicals that do not add a fire safety ben7 efit. 

8 SEC. 3. BAN ON FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICALS IN THE RE9 SILIENT FILLING MATERIALS IN CERTAIN 

10 CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title I of the Consumer Product 

12 Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–314) 

13 is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 

14 ‘‘SEC. 109. BAN ON FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICALS IN THE 

15 RESILIENT FILLING MATERIALS IN CHIL16 DREN’S PRODUCTS. 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Any children’s cushioned prod18 uct that is manufactured on or after the date that is one 

19 year after the date of the enactment of the Decrease Un20 safe Toxins Act that contains more than 1,000 parts per 

21 million flame retardant chemical by weight in the filling 

22 material used to make such product shall be treated as 

23 a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Haz24 ardous Substances Act (15 U.S.C. 1261 et seq.). 

25 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) CHILDREN’S CUSHIONED PRODUCT.—In 

2 this section, the term ‘children’s cushioned product’ 

3 means a children’s product (as defined in section 

4 3(a)(2) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 

5 U.S.C. 2052(a)(2))) that contains resilient filling 

6 materials, such as high chairs, strollers, infant walk7 ers, booster seats, car seats, changing pads, floor 

8 play mats, highchair pads, highchairs, infant swings, 

9 bassinets, infant seats, infant bouncers, nursing 

10 pads, playards, playpen side pads, infant mattresses, 

11 infant mattress pads, and portable hook-on chairs. 

12 ‘‘(2) FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICAL DE13 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘flame retardant 

14 chemical’ means an organohalogen or 

15 organophosphorous compound.’’. 

16 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

17 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 

18 (Public Law 110–314) is amended by inserting after the 

19 item relating to section 108 the following: 

‘‘Sec. 109. Ban on flame retardant chemicals in the resilient filling materials 

in children’s products.’’. 

Æ 


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