Green Screen for Safer Chemicals: Evaluating Flame Retardants for TV Enclosures

The Green Screen for Safer Chemicals defines four benchmarks on the path to safer chemicals:

• Benchmark 1:
  Avoid—Chemical of high concern
• Benchmark 2:
  Use but search for safer substitutes
• Benchmark 3:
  Use but still opportunity for improvement
• Benchmark 4:
  Prefer—Safer chemical

The criteria for each benchmark become progressively more demanding for environmental and human health and safety, with the hazard criteria of Benchmark 4 representing the most preferred chemicals.

To test the Green Screen we evaluated three flame retardants that currently meet performance criteria for use in the external plastic housing of televisions (TVs):

• decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE),
• resorcinol bis(diphenylphosphate) (RDP), and
• bisphenol A diphosphate (BAPP or BPADP).

Of the three flame retardants, RDP was the only flame retardant to pass all criteria under Benchmark 1 of the Green Screen. Thus RDP, at Benchmark 2, is the most preferred of the three flame retardants.

Contents

• Executive Summary
• Consumers and Citizens Want Safer Chemicals
• Transparent Method Needed for Identifying Safer Chemicals
• Guiding Principles for the Green Screen for Safer Chemicals
• The Green Screen: Setting Benchmarks to Safer Chemicals
  • The Green Screen List of Hazards
  • Define Levels of Concern — Low, Moderate, and High — for Each Hazard
  • Specify Hazard Criteria for Each Benchmark in the Green Screen
  • Using the Green Screen
• Applying the Green Screen to Flame Retardants for TV Enclosures
  • Identify Alternatives to DecaBDE in TVs
  • Hazard Assessment of Phosphorous-based and DecaBDE Flame Retardants
  • Apply the Green Screen Benchmarks to Phosphorous-based and DecaBDE Flame Retardants (and their breakdown products)
• Conclusion