Eight states including California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington have taken action to eliminate PFAS in carpets, rugs, apparel, textile furnishings, upholstered furniture, fabric treatments, and/or other textiles. Safer States has worked alongside Toxic-Free Future’s Mind the Store program to pressure major retailers and manufacturers such as REI, Patagonia, Home Depot, and Target to phase out PFAS from the textiles they sell. In addition, we have been successful in pushing major textile certifiers such as OEKO-TEX, Bluesign, and ZDHC to address the entire class of PFAS chemicals in their standards while highlighting the leadership of progressive and transparent certifiers such as GreenScreen Certified that are working to promote a transition to safer alternatives.
The Safer States’ allies have also helped eliminate the use of unnecessary toxic flame retardants in furniture and baby products. Our work alongside that of state legislatures, firefighters, scientists, manufacturers, market campaigns, and the media, has caused a market shift that has reduced our exposure to these deadly chemicals. However, more work remains to be done to reduce exposure to harmful flame retardants. For example, testing conducted by Safer States partner Ecology Center shows that many children’s car seats still contain flame retardants and PFAS.
