Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.

Flame retardants in your earbuds? Toxic chemicals in homes? Left and right are sick of It.
Martin Barraud/Getty Images

Joan Blades, co-founder of Living Room Conversations and MoveOn.org, is left politically. John Gable, co-founder of AllSides.com, is lean-right politically.

Sometimes the left and right agree on things for opposite reasons. Sometimes for the same reason. And still, nothing happens.


Many on the left are concerned about the potential health risks of chemicals in our products. Some on the right are concerned about that too.

Many on the right are concerned about government regulations that are wasteful or actually help special interests to the detriment of the public. Some on the left are concerned about that too, especially when the government and big business collude.

Take the case of earbuds. It may surprise you to learn that there may be flame retardants in your earbuds. According to Arlene Blum, a biophysical chemist and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, “manufacturers were initially told that they needed to add a flame retardant for their earbuds to meet revised standards”. But tests showed no safety benefit from adding these flame retardants.

Why would this standard exist? Every day, all around the world, independent committees meet in stuffy conference rooms, share a spread of pastries, and devise codes and standards for the performance, safety, and efficiency of all kinds of products in your home. These standards are voluntary for manufacturers, but many are adopted by governments as regulations. Often, this process is as esoteric and technical as it sounds. Other times, under the cloak of boring bureaucracy, chemical companies hijack these committees and shape the codes to boost the sales of their products at the expense of our health.

How do they do it? They pay consultants to sit on these volunteer committees and influence the outcome. Academic scientists, public health advocates, and others with an expertise and stake in product safety usually don’t have the time or budget to fly to places like Geneva or Vladivostok to participate. As a result, motivated industry hired guns have free rein to draft the codes as they please.

Perhaps the most egregious exploitation is by the flame retardant industry. Gaming this system is how flame retardant producers have driven the use of their harmful chemicals in products ranging from nursing pillows to building insulation despite providing no fire safety benefit.

It all dates back to the 1970’s when smoking was common, and consequently, house fires. Most agree that products like furniture and TVs should be designed to minimize the risk of starting or spreading a fire. The flame retardant producers seized on that concern to push for fire-safety codes that could only be met with their chemicals. The problem is that no one in these committees asked whether the chemicals actually worked in these scenarios. Unfortunately, the answer is often no.

No one realized how harmful these chemicals were. Just one flame retardant, a PBDE that was used in furniture, has caused a loss of 3 to 5 IQ points in American children, not to mention uncounted cases of cancer, neurological and reproductive impairments.

The chemical industry still isn’t satisfied. For example, flame retardant producers have been trying to drive the International Electrotechnical Commission to set a “candle standard” to protect electronics from ignition from a very small open flame. By its design, this standard would lead to the use of hundreds of millions of pounds of unneeded flame retardant chemicals each year in electronics casings. This is despite the fact that the National Fire Protection Association and others have shown that such a standard would not provide a fire safety benefit.

Even when the lack of fire safety benefit is blatantly obvious, the chemical industry has prevailed in setting its preferred standards. For example, thanks to companies like Dow, some US home-building codes require ( California is an exception) that below-grade insulation be treated with potentially toxic flame retardants. Below-grade insulation is below the ground, where there is no fire source to ignite and no oxygen to maintain it.

Recently, Underwriters Laboratories announced a $1.8 billion initiative, part of which exaggerates fire risks and promotes an unnecessary furniture flammability standard that would require costly tests done by Underwriters Laboratories. In real-life fires, passing open-flame tests does not provide a meaningful fire safety benefit, but being required to meet these standards can lead to the use of harmful flame retardant chemicals.

We need to find ways to safeguard standards-setting against industry manipulation and government regulation that is not in our best interests. Many on the right and left agree that this problem needs to be addressed, but the problem is driven by actions behind closed doors that are not sexy enough to get news coverage and popular attention. So how do we fix it?

Shine a light on the problem, and demand our elected representatives take action. There are many elected officials that want to bridge divides to address common problems and to reinstate the practice of bi-parisanship. Let’s provide the foundation upon which they can do this.

Read More

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra is once again stepping onto familiar ground. After serving in Congress, leading California’s Department of Justice, and joining President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he is now seeking the governorship of his home state. His campaign marks both a return to local politics and a renewed confrontation with Donald Trump, now back in the White House.

Becerra’s message combines pragmatism and resistance. “We’ll continue to be a leader, a fighter, and a vision of what can be in the United States,” he said in his recent interview with Latino News Network. He recalled his years as California’s attorney general, when he “had to take him on” to defend the state’s laws and families. Between 2017 and 2021, Becerra filed or joined more than 120 lawsuits against the Trump administration, covering immigration, environmental protection, civil rights, and healthcare. “We were able to defend California, its values and its people,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
​Voting booths in a high school.

During a recent visit to Indianapolis, VP JD Vance pressed Indiana Republicans to consider mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Getty Images, mphillips007

JD Vance Presses Indiana GOP To Redraw Congressional Map

On October 10, Vice President JD Vance visited Indianapolis to meet with Republican lawmakers, urging them to consider redrawing Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The visit marked Vance’s third trip to the state in recent months, underscoring the Trump administration’s aggressive push to expand Republican control in Congress.

Vance’s meetings are part of a broader national strategy led by President Donald Trump to encourage GOP-led states to revise district boundaries mid-decade. States like Missouri and Texas have already passed new maps, while Indiana remains hesitant. Governor Mike Braun has met with Vance and other Republican leaders. Still, he has yet to commit to calling a special legislative session. Braun emphasized that any decision must ensure “fair representation for every Hoosier."

Keep ReadingShow less
A child looks into an empty fridge-freezer in a domestic kitchen.

The Trump administration’s suspension of the USDA’s Household Food Security Report halts decades of hunger data tracking.

Getty Images, Catherine Falls Commercial

Trump Gives Up the Fight Against Hunger

A Vanishing Measure of Hunger

Consider a hunger policy director at a state Department of Social Services studying food insecurity data across the state. For years, she has relied on the USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report to identify where hunger is rising, how many families are skipping meals, and how many children go to bed hungry. Those numbers help her target resources and advocate for stronger programs.

Now there is no new data. The survey has been “suspended for review,” officially to allow for a “methodological reassessment” and cost analysis. Critics say the timing and language suggest political motives. It is one of many federal data programs quietly dropped under a Trump executive order on so-called “nonessential statistics,” a phrase that almost parodies itself. Labeling hunger data “nonessential” is like turning off a fire alarm because it makes too much noise; it implies that acknowledging food insecurity is optional and reveals more about the administration’s priorities than reality.

Keep ReadingShow less
Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

U.S. President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

(Photo by Suzanne Plunkett - Pool / Getty Images)

Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

American political leaders have forgotten how to be gracious to their opponents when people on the other side do something for which they deserve credit. Our antagonisms have become so deep and bitter that we are reluctant to give an inch to our political adversaries.

This is not good for democracy.

Keep ReadingShow less