Toxic Hot Seat

A Review on Toxic Hot Seat through Patricia Callahan
By Riley Anderson



Throughout the first couple weeks of the class returning from Christmas break, we embarked on our journey through toxicology. The class was assigned to watch Toxic Hot Seat, which is a documentary that explores the effect of Technical Bulletin 117 which was a law established in 1975. Technical Bulletin 117 required that all fabrics sold in the state of California had to have flame retardants. Throughout the film there are many objective perspectives from mothers, firefighters, scientists, journalist and even politicians on the issue of TB 117.

Patricia Callahan

Each member of the class was assigned a specific person to watch throughout the film, throughout Toxic Hot Seat I was assigned to look at the perspective of Patricia Callahan. Patricia Callahan is
an investigative reporter who currently works for the Chicago Tribune. Patricia Callahan launched an investigation on Technical Bulletin 117 and how the product safety agency was unable to protect children from deadly chemicals. The result of this investigation was the recall of over a million baby products and in 2008, won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Patricia Callahan often interviewed people and always asked one question before finishing the interview, "When doing interviews that had to do with chemicals, not flame retardants, I often ask what didn't I ask you or what is interesting?" The response that she got the majority of the time is what you really should be looking into is flame retardants. Through watching the documentary, it was obvious that flame retardants are everywhere in our society today. Throughout the average household there are around 84,000 chemicals. Flame retardants are found in the polyester foam that serves as padding in couches and chairs throughout the household and everyday spaces.

Patricia Callahan was talking about the impact that TB 117 has on everybody in the United States and the activists for change of Technical Bulletin 117 was a group of citizens who are affected by TB 117. "The group that was lined up to change Technical Bulletin 117 wasn't just a few environmental activists. It was firefighters, who had been sick, and it was nursing moms, and public health advocates, and scientists. Overall it was a diverse group."

Patricia Callahan went to a conference where the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute were also attending, the CFSI claims that "Citizens for Fire Safety is a coalition of fire professionals, educators, community activists, burn centers, doctors, fire departments and industry leaders, united to ensure that our country is protected by the highest standards of fire safety." Later on Callahan went to find the list of members who are actively a part of Citizens for Fire Safety and what she found was "Here is the list of the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute member list." The three names on this list are Albemarle, Chemtura, and Israeli Chemical. The three largest makers of flame retardant in the world. 

Technical Bulletin 117 would have one thing going for it if it actually worked. When the flame retardants, such as PBDE's are exposed to a small flame it slows the ignition of the polyester foam by twelve seconds. However with combination of the fabric it really only prevents the ignition of the foam for a few seconds, and when it does ignite it burns hotter and releases deadly chemicals into the air.

Throughout the course of the film I was opened to a world of chemicals I never new existed. The past couple weeks, learning about Toxicology, has helped develop a new perspective on the industrial work that goes on in our country. The PBDEs that are found in the furniture and other flame retardants has life threatening effects and are even found in our newborn children. The most shocking part of the film is when they had the child wear flame retardant pajamas for one night, and the next day they found traces of it in her urine. I hope the industry changes TB 117 that was based on an idea that has been found to not work.