Textile Back-Coating Environmental Challenges for the UK Furnishing Fabrics Industry: Release and Exposure of Flame Retardant Species

European priority-chemical risk assessments of flame retardants, UK work on associated ecotoxicological risks, the findings of the US NAS/NRC subcommittee report on the risk assessment of flame retardant chemicals and the related work of the US CPSC, have revealed a distinct absence of good quality peer reviewed information on the release of flame retardants from common consumer product materials. Such lack of information for human exposure by dermal, oral and inhalation routes and for environmental ecotoxicology assessments can have a significant impact on the outcome of current and future prospective approaches to risk assessment. This is illustrated for some current risk assessment methodologies. Flame retardant release and exposure measurements may obviate the need for more expensive and time-consuming toxicology work to arrive at risk assessments that contain a high degree of certainty. We discuss flame retardant release and exposure research needs and describe recently initiated work to establish release behaviour and the effects of ageing and wear on the release and exposure of flame retardants used in upholstered furniture materials. The practical consequences of having a better understanding of the release and exposure of flame retardants is also discussed.