Pawlenty vetoes ban on flame retardant

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has vetoed legislation that prohibits the manufacture, processing or distribution of certain electronics, furniture and mattresses treated with commercial decabromodiphenyl ether, commonly known as decaBDE.

DecaBDE is a chemical flame retardant that has many industrial applications. Concerns that the chemical may be harmful to humans, while inconclusive, have resulted in similar bans in Washington and Maine, with legislation being considered in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana and New York.

DecaBDE is classified as a “possible human carcinogen” by the Environmental Protection Agency on the basis of evidence for cancer in animals. In 2004, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reported that “we don’t know if PBDEs can cause cancer in people, although liver tumors developed in rats and mice that ate extremely large amounts of decaBDE throughout their lifetime.”

Pawlenty declared in his veto letter that “the legislative mandate overreaches and goes beyond current scientific research.”