Sitting Comfortably?

Nicholas Kristof, in his Saturday column, highlighted a four-part series of investigative reports in the Chicago Tribune called "Playing With Fire," which is an instance of journalism at its best.

IF you want a case study of everything that is wrong with money politics, this is it.

Chances are that if you’re sitting on a couch right now, it contains flame retardants. This will probably do no good if your house catches fire — although it may release toxic smoke. There is growing concern that the chemicals are hazardous, with evidence mounting of links to cancer, fetal impairment and reproductive problems.

The problem with flame retardants is that they migrate into dust that is ingested, particularly by children playing on the floor. R. Thomas Zoeller, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts, told me that while there have been many studies on animals, there is still uncertainty about the impact of flame retardants on humans. But he said that some retardants were very similar to banned PCBs, which have been linked to everything from lower I.Q. to diabetes, and that it was reasonable to expect certain flame retardants to have similar consequences.

The Chicago Tribune series shows yet another story of industry deception from beginning to end.  The very existence of fire retardants in furniture is a result of deception by the tobacco industry in order to shift the focus away from cigarettes as a cause of fire deaths.  One almost has to marvel at the chutzpah of the tobacco companies in organizing the National Association of State Fire Marshals and then leading them around by the nose to support the industry's position.


After reading this series, you will feel personally violated and manipulated.  Why, always, does the public have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the harmfulness of products instead of the industries involved proving their safety?  It is always the same.

This campaign season, you’ll hear fervent denunciations of “burdensome government regulation.” When you do, think of the other side of the story: your home is filled with toxic flame retardants that serve no higher purpose than enriching three companies. The lesson is that we need not only safer couches but also a political system less distorted by toxic money.