What exactly is PBDE. Both furniture and Chemical industries have their own importance. I am looking to purchase some furniture items and want suggestions where to buy it?

We all take risks everyday, KarlPt. We go from home to work in our car, for the food we eat, to the activities we enjoy. Because we know and understand these risks. This is why I posted this message so that everyone can understand the risks associated with the furniture your sitting on today or tomorrow. All the scientific research has shown the risks from the industry using fire retardant chemicals in the foam and padding far out-weight any risks that these chemicals may provide to help reduce any fires in the home.
It would be easy for me to just say go out and buy a sofa without these chemicals in the foam. But its not, because this is the standard and most upholstery will display with a hangtag attached or sewn into he seat that all filling materials meet Cal 117 fire retardant requirements. Contact every manufacturers of the items your looking at to purchase and ask them if they offer fire retardant free foam and fillings. And you want this in writing from them. Thats if you believe the risks shown from all the research on this.

Fire retardent foam is required in California. Most manufacturers who sell in CA have adopted this standard so they won't have to carry two foams and keep track of where each order is going and then adjust their foam accordingly.

Freethinker99, Its also been pushed by the tobacco & chemical companies the major financier of UFAC. Hopefully it will get changed:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown is calling for changes to state flammability standards for upholstered furniture in an effort to reduce the use of what he says are toxic flame retardants.

Brown said in a statement on Monday that a growing body of evidence shows chemicals used as retardants harm human health and the environment.

Interesting!

Yes very interesting reading going on about this, Freethinker99. A upholstery manufacturer just recently stopped selling into California because of the FR regulations. As it appears the new direction is similar to the mattresses industry FR regulations. To have a FR barrier; this could either be the fabric/leather itself or a FR barrier underneath. Their are complaints that many of these barriers dont work well with/against majority of fabrics. Also exactly what chemical will they be using for this barrier or in the fabrics themselves. Is their really any safe FR chemicals?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/magazine/arlene-blums-crusade-against-household-toxins.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

I saw a demonstration on TV after we had a local home fire. Memory foam is explosive, when it reaches a certain temp it explodes. I will not have things like that in my home, especially on a child's bed. I know every thing is dangerous to a certain extent, but some things we can avoid. I don't spray for bugs in my home, I clean it often. I don't use garden spray, there is enough plants out there that bugs don't like. I do hire someone to spray to prevent termites to protect my home. I have stopped using heavy duty cleaners, I use soap and water for 99% of my cleaning.

EmmaR, I have seen some of these demonstrations, and they are meant to scare people and not based common sense or facts. If your child is in a bed and it catches fire and the temperature of the fire reaches the point where the foam will reach its flash point, im sorry to say long before it reaches that temperature it will be too late for your child. Almost always in a home fire, the cause of death is smoke inhalation. Even with these flame retardant chemicals in the foam, it will still produce smoke. You should have working fire/smoke detectors in everyroom and teach for your children what to do in case of a fire or alarm goes off and also teach them that fire is extremely dangerous and not something to play with. If you do just this, you will reduce or eliminate the chance of anyone in your family getting in harms way of a fire.
It important that everyone take self responsibility for this and not rely on the the government/fire officials and the regulations that are promoted by the chemical industry products and their scare tactics to get in the way of the actual facts.