Harmful Chemical Wafts Off Your TV
FORT WORTH, Texas - Common household dust has long been known to carry pesticides, allergens and other irritants.
But the dust that coats your television sets may answer why virtually every American tested has traces of a chemical flame retardant that may be harmful.
The flame retardants have been used for decades in television sets, computer-wire insulation, mattress stuffing, carpet padding and many other common household products. They have been found in household dust, but no one has been able to say how they got there and from what products.
A study by researchers at Boston University’s School of Public Health appears to have pinpointed the largest source of chemical flame retardants as the dust on television sets.
Using a portable X-ray device, researchers sampled 19 Boston-area homes and found large volumes of the flame retardants in television dust.
One theory is that when the television heats up, the flame retardants in the TV vaporize into a gas, eventually settling into the dust in the air and on bookshelves, floors and appliances.
“I think this link between the flame retardants and dust in TVs is a really big deal,” said Tom Webster, a Boston University epidemiologist who led the study.
That’s true, in part, because millions of television sets are expected to be discarded in February when television broadcasts switch to digital signals, resulting in a much greater volume of flame retardants contaminating the environment. The flame retardants take decades to break down, and they have been shown to travel great distances in the air and water.
© 2008 The Seattle Times
Another good reason to kill your T.V.as it is bad for you physically as well as mentally!
Yeah, flame retardants can make you people retardant…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/23/MN285358.DTL
I thought all the toxic, mind-numbing chemicals released by your T.V. were the ones spewed out by the mainstream press. I guess you learn something new every day.
TV chemical residues pale into insignificance alongside the mind-control messages woven into toxic TV radiation.
Yep bad news here alright. Of course the DU wafting through our air is perfectly alright. Let the military test it and use it and don’t anyone say a word about it.
Dang, we’ve got two TVs and we use em both. I’m gonna buy one of those long handeled fuzzy dusters they advertise on the news channels every five minutes. Gonna buy some “Head On” too.
scary stuff.
to Common Dreams staff please note:
You might want to take a closer look at the TV that you are using to illustrate this article. There is a istockphoto watermark still clearly visible. When you pay for it you can get the version that is watermark free.
“permanent learning and memory impairment” and “hearing deficits”. “permanent learning and memory impairment” and “hearing deficits”. “permanent learning…
I guess that applies to CRT style computer monitors also!
We’re doomed! We’re gonna die die die I tell you!
Another reason to start a garden, learn a new craft/hobbie, or read a book instead.
It apparently is a ‘big deal’, but why the situation will become worse in Feb. when broadcasters switch to digital signals is something I wonder about. If it means dumping the old tv set to replace it with a digital signal receiving set, then this means more tv sets potentially going to the dumps, instead of being RECYCLED; but this should not be happening … at all. All hi-tech gadgets, etc., need to go to recycling, and the latter must be a clean or environmentally safe process in order to avoid letting recycling also contribute to toxic pollution.
If this environmental and health need is respected, then it would be good for the writers of articles like this one by Scott Streater to briefly explain why switching to digital signal tv broadcasting tech. will mean more of this toxic chemical dust in the environment.
It is the heat generated by the TV which causes this stuff to become airborne - which is why the “boiling water” orders are such BS - you don’t really want to be inhaling all that bleach in the air.
DU isn’t the only poison around - and before that (in Vietnam) it was agent orange, and before that (in WWI) it was bleach that was used as a nerve agent - chlorine is bleach. Seems that they are getting worse and worse poisons.
What it means is that you should be holding onto your old TV until it dies rather than getting a new one while the old one is still working. The older the TV, the greater the chance that the flame retardant has already become airborne - making the future risk less than if you replace TV sets before their time is up. Without either TV or Internet most of you would go stir crazy - these things help make people feel less isolated.
RE: “permanent learning and memory impairment”
Two years from now we will be saying the same thing about the “air freshioners” and air freshioner-laced personal care products. The good baby who sleeps alot in the “clean” home where they dirty everything with air freshioner and no one knows why the kid has trouble with retention.
TV ROTS YOUR BRAIN
WORSE THAN CRACK COCAINE
IT”S A GLOWING FREE-WILL DRAIN
WHICH HAS DESTROYED MY RHYMING ABILITY
Another useless “chemicals are bad” rant.
Why can’t they list the chemical(s)? Are there ANY published toxicological, teratological, carcinogenic, etc. studies cited here…let alone prescribed individual or collective actions/precautions.
Fortunately, stories like this won’t “take decades to break down”.
When local production gave way to “efficiencies of scale”, common sense gave way to lunacy, as the giant corporations readily adopted idiotic ideas of dangerous chemical additives whether to quiet the consumer safety advocates (fire resistant TVs) or to add convenience (extend shelf life of foods, make paint dry faster).
As we shift back to local production, we’ll give up the chemical additives. Paint will consist of a binder and a pigment, both natural, and furniture will consist of wood with the natural finishes. No formaldehyde or other chemical additives.
The local products will cost more, but they will be more beautiful, we’ll keep them longer, and they won’t offgass anything dangerous. They will more easily recycle at the local level. Localism is a complete strategy - it “covers all the bases”, environmental, economic, social.
Digital TV or no more TV?
No more tv, rtdruy! May the nation awake from its slumber!
@jumperpin - Why don’t you go have a look-see at this month’s Environmental Health Perspectives: http://www.ehponline.org/. It’s the “official” journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a division of the National Institute of Health. Not exactly a progressive or liberal journal, given that appointments and top staff positions are selected by the Bush administration. Half of this month’s journal discusses flame retardants as well as several research papers that examined effects of exposures.
As for why they can’t list the chemical(s), they certainly could, but would it make a difference? There are a number of related but slightly different forms of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, but do you really think your body cares what they are called? I sense from your tone that you don’t think any of this stuff can hurt you. Probably it won’t hurt you immediately - maybe you’ll get cancer, maybe not, but for developing fetuses and children, it’s a huge deal. What is more interesting to me is that these chemicals are estrogenic, which might go a long way to explaining why so many boys are born with undescended testicles or other hormone-related outcomes, and why young girls are increasingly entering puberty earlier.
BTW, Sweden banned PBDEs already, and the rest of the EU countries are following in their footsteps under REACH. Only in America do people scoff at the negative environmental health effects of dangerous chemicals. Usually the biggest boosters and naysayers have a financial tie to the chemical at issue, or represent the industry.
rtdrury - I think you’re right about how we got in this mess and where we’re likely to end up, moving back to simpler and natural methods of producing the things we really need. As for TV, we don’t and never have needed it. I realized that in 1991 while working for General Instrument designing cable television equipment. When I saw how effective the television was in selling the first gulf war, that was pretty much the end of my love affair with the TV. Several years later, GI brought in (guess who?) Donald Rumsfeld to be the CEO. Then everything clicked for me. I finally got it. Television was the tool of choice to promote war, and who better than a former SECDEF to represent those interests.
The whole digital TV thing is a total scam, meant primarily to ensure that no amateurs can take over the national networks. It also has the added side benefit of forcing millions of people to pay for their own propaganda medium. It’s a win-win-win for the global corporations.
But they may have mis-estimated the whole affair, and we might find a whole lot of people with tons of free time on their hands come February. (Isn’t this curious timing, in the middle of the winter and right after the new administration takes office?) Nonetheless, it might provide an organizing window of opportunity unlike any in many decades.
The Congress foresaw the threat it would pose to have large numbers of people unable to receive propaganda, er, I mean TV, so they have already funded a program to distribute, free, converter boxes that will receive the digital signals and convert them to analog so you can watch the new digital TV on your old receiver.
My TV was made in 1983 so perhaps it does not have all the fire retardant chemicals in its wiring. The screen attracts the dust, and I wipe it off with a sponge and rinse it down the sink, so I guess it ends up in the ground water that gets pumped into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. I already watch via a digital to analog converter that receives digital from Dish Network and then outputs analog to my old Sony 26″ TV that is still working great.
culicomorpha,
Your reply is far more useful than the original vacuous story.
Heavy metals alone should have already compelled a deposit/return system (or other consumer incentives) to channel electronic appliances away from our solid waste stream.
Not withstanding “A study by researchers at Boston University’s School of Public Health”, the churn of new garments in our throwaway society, from unregulated third world mills, likely poses greater PBDE exposure risk than some baked/spent aerial TV from the 70’s.
Hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle works with TV set screens. It is non toxic.
The appropriate time to do product testing or public health testing of chemical safety is before a product is in every home in America for 30 years. Before, not after.
Ohmygawd! Does this apply to ALL types of TV screens or only the CRT variety? I really need to know. I just switched to an LCD widescreen monitor which came with its own “special” dusting cloth.
Also, does it matter if I almost never turn the stupid time waster on?
I heard spontanious combustion numbers are down the the US.
the numbers started going up as soon as the US , Russia started testing nukes. What are the numbers 30% of us will die from some type of cancer? Wait till the fuckers do Iran. I bet the numbers will be 3 out of 5 in under 10 years
While it’s taken me years to get a grip on this “the medium is the message” thing, it took me no time at all to accept that the appliance itself is as unwholesome as the crap that spews forth from it. We have rabbit ears, and I keep forgetting how bad TV actually is, until I visit someone with cable or satellite… I wonder if TVs give off more chemicals if they get more channels? How bout if I just get a bigger TV, can I have more toxic chemicals? Remember in the movie “back to the future”, is that line, “He’s kidding you, no one has two TV’s”? The other day I had someone having a hard time believing we only have one…
This seems, to me, to apply to more than TV sets; thinking it must also apply with computers, the whole ensemble, and perhaps stereo systems like those of Bose sound systems, f.e.
And what about microwave ovens, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances?
We have coral snakes here too. No antidote for the Sonoran coral snake. A neighbor of ours was hit and run over by a concrete truck last week. He’s dead and buried and he had three TV sets. Oh well, he was a registered Republican anyway. Good lookin old lady too.
“presence” writes: “I’d much prefer to wait until the products are proven to be harmless, but that is just so un-republican and anti-American…”
What is “anti-American”? I never hear any other nationality talking about being anti their nation.
I’ve heard other nationalities say “Buy British” or “Buy French”, but I never hear them accuse anyone of being anti-British or anti-French merely for expressing some negative opinion about their country or people.
If I oppose the occupation and looting of Iraq by America, is that being anti-American?
If I find the people of another country less shallow than Americans, is that being anti-American?
If I say this product designed and made in America is better than this one made elsewhere, is that being pro-American?
If I have a friend who’s American, is that being pro-American?
:o\
We gave up our t.v. on May 22nd,2003. It was an addiction for me, so it was very hard. I decided to do it after reading an interview with Viggo Mortensen where he mentioned that he didn’t own one. Life without it has been wonderful, and I would like to thank Mr. Mortensen for this broader view of life that comes with the freedom from television.
Excellent-news for those concerned with Spontaneous-combustion, however…
Well, guess it wouldn’t hurt to have an air filter near the T.V. then. Speaking of toxic materials in the household, look up the chemical stew they put in ‘Bounce’ fabric softener sheets. EEwwwwweeee! I had an in-law react to that before it dawned on us.
Or artifically flavored oatmeal…they manufacture those flavors in New Jersey and I think they use them in air freshner too because they have the same smell.
And don’t eat the little air freshner pine trees that hang on your car’s dash either. Our dog ate one and died the next day.
Don’t eat your dog, either. The article says the flame retardant dust is every where and in other articles it is cancer-causing. We reap what we sow. Humans are over-populating this planet. This is something we have done to ourselves. And, the bio-planet is seeking to cut human numbers. Our own anger and killing of each other is also part of the planets programing to rid itself of pests.
Don’t eat the dog!! Oh oh, why? It’s too late. The ribs were the best part. We buried the bones ____ with all due respect. She was a good dog.
OMG! KILL YOUR HDTV ASAP, OK?