Carpet manufacturers in the UK recognise their responsibility towards the environment and do not generally add dangerous materials to their products during manufacture. The requirements of the OSPAR convention are recognised and understood and those chemicals listed under this agreement which might find their way into carpet are being phased out within the required time scale. (The OSPAR convention is the main inter-governmental agreement to regulate and control marine pollution in the North Sea and the North Atlantic.)

Generally speaking if minute traces of toxic chemicals are found in carpet they will almost certainly be there as a constituent of one of the raw materials used in carpet manufacture, particularly those which may be sourced outside the modern western world.

The results of a Healthy Flooring Network study would have you believe that carpet manufacturers inevitably include a range of dangerous chemicals in their products but it must be clearly understood that the small sample of carpet tested in their 2000 study was not in the least representative of the wider range of products made by British carpet producers and some products analysed in the study were carefully selected since the chemicals found were indeed likely to be present in the products since they were advertised accordingly There was, furthermore, no information relating to acceptable human exposure levels of such chemicals or comparisons with background levels of these chemicals in the everyday environment.

Two carpets tested, were found to contain small traces of Organo-tin compounds as ?anti-dust-mite? treatments. The treatment applied has since been re-formulated and contains no organo-tin compounds. Those carpets containing a high proportion of wool in the pile were found, not surprisingly, to contain Permethrin. A chemical treatment used to impart insect (moth) resistance. There is no evidence to suggest that the very low levels found in these carpet samples have any adverse effect upon human health.

Brominated Fire Retardants were found in 3 products, two of which were not produced in the UK and were constructed with polypropylene fibre, a product with less inherent fire retardancy properties than other popular carpet fibres.

Formaldehyde was found in small amounts in a number of samples, which is also not surprising when wool is known to absorb formaldehyde from the atmosphere (contributing to cleaner air).

It is possible that some of these chemicals may have been included in raw materials down the supply chain and therefore present in the carpet without the knowledge of the carpet manufacturer.

Organo-tins and Brominated fire retardant are two of the chemicals in the OSPAR list of 32 chemicals which are to be phased out, by agreement, by 2020 at the latest.

The study concludes that these potentially toxic chemicals were found in some (but not all) samples and goes on to say "although the consequences of long term exposure to chemicals such as these, in the indoor environment is uncertain, the above chemicals have properties which make them potentially hazardous to human health and the environment?. The words potentially and uncertain should be noted!

An article published in New Scientist magazine (5th May 2001) alleged that living indoors exposes us to much higher levels of toxins than being outdoors. This article is based on US experience and is not directly comparable to experience in Britain.

As pointed out above carpet is acknowledged as a reservoir for dust, which sinks to the base of the pile. The dust may well contain minute traces of toxins and absorb others but, clearly, these toxins did not originate in the carpet and in any event they would have also contaminated other indoor surfaces. Research has shown that only 1% of dust in carpet is available on the carpet surface, the remainder being held in the pile until such time as it is removed by normal cleaning.