[zug_zug]

I think they could be called a scam. Having flame retardent in our bedding by law, all so smokers could smoke in bed safely, feels like some sort of regulatory capture to me.

They should make flame-retardent bedware and non-flame-retwrdent bedware, and should be legally obligated to disclose every flame-retarded chemical and daily expected daily exposure levels on the tags and box.

[infecto]

Well things have gotten better in the past 20yrs but there is a long way to go. Childrens sleepware is the notable item that still contains retardants and at least there is mandatory tagging for when its present.

when I have done readings before I honestly could not find note of regulatory capture but sometimes these things get muddied with history. Saying its a scam is just hyperbole. Most of the laws on the book are tied in time to some fairly large (100+ person) fire death events. There is a reason those laws were created and we were still in a period of time where chemicals could solve all problems.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Flame retardant bedware is called "the bedware your great grandparents had".

Problem is, in capitalism's endless march towards ... well, who knows what, precisely ... companies began to make bedware out of synthetic fabric because it was (a) cheaper to make (b) allowing lower retail prices and potentially (c) higher profit margins. There's also some sense in which synthetic fabrics can be longer lived than non-synthetics.

Once this stuff was out in people's lives, we realized that there was (at least) one downside: these fabrics also ignite much more easily than non-synthetics, and when they do, they generate flame which spreads a fire even more rapidly.

One option would have been to just ban any fabrics that ignite more easily than (say) cotton. That would have been cast by some as a move against the interests of lower income people (not necessarily incorrectly).

Another option would have been to just leave things alone, and let the people who choose to buy synthetic bedware sans flame retardants deal with the consequences themselves. Alas, that's not actually how our society works. When your neighbor's house goes up in flames because of their bedding choices, you still want your fire department to show up and get things under control, lest you lose your home too.

So .. we set standards for how much and what types of flame retardants were acceptable (standards that are subject to and have been changed over time), and let people continue to buy synthetic bedware (and furniture and clothes and ....) all of which contribute to the fuel load should a fire break out.

I am a firefighter (II), and the increase in the speed with which homes can now be fully engulfed because of the decline in the low of low-flammable materials and the rise of synthetics is utterly terrifying.