Hunting for PBDE's

In class Alan assigned us into three different groups and a certain location around the campus to looks for PBDE's. It was a pretty cool to go and look for products that may have a flame retardant tag on them. I was assigned to look for the tags in my room and in the Meeting House. In this search I had to move and rearrange a lot of things in the process.

                                               Label from chair in the Meeting House


Where (what kind of room) did you find most of the flame retardant products?

Throughout my search of trying to find flame retardant products at Proctor, I couldn't find any with tags or saying they are flame retardant. It was pretty frustrating finding no products with the tag on it because I was really looking forward to finding a product with the specific flame retardant tag on it. As I looked in the Meeting House I ended with the same results. From what I found and taken a look at, I didn't get the result I wanted.



















Results from Meeting House














Results from Rulon-Miller Dorm


Examining your charts, which product do think gets the most use from people?

In the meeting house, the seats that students sit in during assembly are the most used. Sadly there is not tag on the bottom or the back of the chair to tell if the seat is flame retardant. In my dorm room one of the most used products is my bed. I sleep in it every night and when I went to look for the tags there was none. Another Product that is used a lot in my room is my couch. I usually do homework on it at night and people come in my room to watch movies on it. Also, That couch was used by somebody else in my dorm from last year.















          Seat from Meeting House

Knowing that exposure rate, route of exposure and age of exposure are keys to determining toxic impact, which product generates the highest health risk? Which product has the lowest health risk? Explain why.

From the products that I examined, the product that generates the highest health risk is probably my couch. I know for a fact that people come to my room everyday and hang out. My t.v is set up in front of the couch so whenever there is something playing on it, there is at least 3 kids on my couch.


















         Couch from my room

After watching SAFETY ON FIRE what would you suggest are some appropriate means to address the concerns of PBDE exposure?

Some of the suggestions was that the flame retardant furniture does help prevent fires from starting up incase if this happens. But another thing that is a factor is the chemicals that are spread when a person or multiple people sit on the product.

Couch from Rulon-Miller Dorm


(ALL PHOTO TAKEN BY MYLES ABBATE)