By Charlotte Schubert and Janet Raloff
On Sept. 6, the European Union’s parliament provisionally voted to ban the use and importation of nearly all members of a family of flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Manufacturers use these compounds to protect products ranging from computer housings to upholstery fabric. So widely used are PBDEs that traces of the substances show up throughout the environment–even in human breast milk.
Because European Union (EU) parliamentary votes don’t carry the weight of law, the ban won’t go into effect unless a Council of Ministers representing the EU member states also agrees to it. Alternatively, those ministers could convince the parliament to scale back on the number of PBDEs earmarked for a phaseout.