Super Mario v the exploding laptop

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:36

Your IT - Home IT

However despite this, Dell for one has said it will not use BFRs in its products and the US State of Washington is moving to ban Deca-BDE in some products and looking to extend this ban to electrical enclosures for items like televisions and computers by 2011, if an alternative flame retardant is found.

  According to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the BSEF has spent more than $US300,000 since 2005 to lobby against such restrictions, including full-page newspaper advertisements in Washington papers and a letter to Governor Chris Gregoire urging her not to sign the legislation.

However the BSEF appears to have scored a significant victory on another front this week. It has issued a press release saying: "The EU Competent Authorities have confirmed the conclusions of an EU risk assessment report on the brominated flame retardant Deca-BDE, which did not identify any significant risks to the environment or human health.

"At the meeting of EU Member States and the European Commission on 11 December, the EU Competent Authorities for chemicals policy reviewed the EU policy status of Deca-BDE and agreed to proceed to formal publication of the updated Risk Assessment Report. This will provide a complete basis for registration of Deca-BDE under REACH [The EU regulations on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances]."

According to BSEF: "an EU risk assessment report for Deca-BDE was initiated in 1994 and was concluded in 2004 with no environmental or health risks identified. Remaining concerns over the potential for Deca-BDE to present a risk in the future led to the EU Competent Authorities mandating two 10-year monitoring studies and one final toxicity test and supporting the initiation by industry of a voluntary industrial emissions control programme Since 2004, Deca-BDE's risk assessment has twice been updated, the latest update dating from June 2007. The updated risk assessment, which now covers in the region of 1,000 environmental and health studies, did not identify any environmental or health risk."

iTWire has been unable to obtain access to any EU documents detailing the meeting to which BSEF refers. However, as we reported last month   many reputable bodies other than Greenpeace have raised concerns about BFR, and about Deca-BDE in particular.