Did the state kill my cat?

Fire-retardant chemicals required by California in furniture may be poisoning us.

My beloved cat, Midnight, died a few days ago -- possibly because of toxic chemicals in my furniture. In two years with hyperthyroid disease, Midnight went from a plump 14 pounds to a skeletal five. A year ago, a veterinary epidemiologist found that Midnight's blood contained among the highest levels of PBDEs documented in animal research. That's when I learned that the chemicals in my cat came from my couch. And that my furniture is uniquely toxic because I live in California.

Since the 1980s, fire-retardant chemicals such as PBDEs have been added to furniture to meet a California-only requirement that the foam inside resist a 12-second exposure to an open flame. The chemicals evaporate from the foam, settle in dust and coat walls with a thin film. Cats that groom themselves and toddlers who crawl in dust show especially high levels of PBDEs, but everyone with this chemically treated furniture gets some exposure. Read article

I know this is not in Western Australia but in the US, although, working in the furniture industry myself I am always alert hearing these stories and I remember when I was stil working in The Netherlands and we had furniture shows in England where the demand for fire retartant was so much higher that we couldn't use our mattresses, dunas and pillows on our beds at the show in the early nineties and already than I was alarmed with the amount of poison in English bedding and didn't like sleeping there as I was sure I could smell it... and therefore breath it...