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District of Columbia Joins Other States in Banning Flame Retardants

On March 17, 2016, the Mayor of the District of Columbia signed B21-0143  into law, banning the flame retardants tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP) and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP).  In doing so, the District of Columbia now has joined a number of other states, including Maryland, Minnesota and New York, in banning flame retardants from consumer (and especially children’s) products.

The new law will ban children’s products and residential upholstered furniture from containing more than 0.1% of these chemicals by mass. This ban goes into effect January 1, 2018.  The ban becomes extended to all products on January 1, 2019.

However, the law exempts a number of products, including:

  • Motor vehicles and their replacement parts and equipment;
  • Many electronic devices and their accessories (e.g., desktop and laptop computers; calculators, wireless telephones, cables and adapters); and
  • Electronic storage media.

Ms. Grimaldi maintains a diverse environmental law practice focusing on chemical and product regulation and litigation defense. Her practice areas include Proposition 65, California's Safer Consumer Products Regulations, California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Act and the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. Ms. Grimaldi graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law magna cum laude and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Bacteriology from University of California, Davis. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a research assistant in laboratories at the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Research Institute and at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.