Californians Are Fire-Proof, Also More Likely to Die

Jill Cowan — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:55:40 +0000

Earlier this month, Berkeley researchers found that Californians are (literally) by blood, more fire-proof than people from the rest of the United States. The study also conclusively proved that Californians generally have X-ray vision, can climb up walls and can fly. Basically, they found that Californians are superheroes.

OK, so none of that is exactly true. However, researchers did actually find that Californians have approximately twice the concentrations of flame retardants flowin’ in their bloodz as average Americans. Cool fun fact, right?

Like, totally!–Except for the fact that these flame retardants happen to be toxic chemicals that will royally muck up your endocrine system, give you cancer, and–oh yeah, we almost forgot–they don’t even make you invincible. Can we get a “Hiss, hiss! Boo?”

It turns out we do it to ourselves. Thanks to Technical Bulletin 117, a cancer-spawning legislative remnant of the 1970s, furniture manufacturers are required to “pump flame retardants into furniture” so that it will “withstand at least 12 seconds of open flame without catching on fire.” The chemicals can then enter the body when you lick your sofa or otherwise come into direct contact with couch dust.

Legislators are now trying to ban such harmful chemicals, but in the meantime, we wouldn’t recommend walking around naked in your living room.

Study: Californians Have High Flame Retardant Amounts in Their Blood [Daily Cal]

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Californians Are Fire-Proof, Also More Likely to Die