This allowed me to spend a solid hour or so making my list easy for my mom to use while avoiding doing my last non-final-related homework of the semester.

Mordwen: I’d be surprised if Australian plastic derivatives didn’t use flame retardants in some fashion — they’re just too widespread, and most plastics are too flammable not to have triggered a demand for flame resistance as a safety matter. Industrially, polybrominated diphenyls are cheap and efficient, and they’ve been on the market for decades. The toxicological effects aren’t clear yet — at significant doses they act like PCBs, they’re fat-soluble and they do bioaccumulate; at low doses they may have endocrine-disruptive effects with possible adverse consequences for sexual development and thyroid functions. It’s not well studied, though, and the industry has been astroturfing the topic (not as badly as they did with bisphenol-A, but still — scrutinize the funding and motives of any source you look at.) Some polybrominated flame retardants have been banned in the EU, particularly the variants with more acute mid-dose effects, but not all. Since there isn’t a clear industrial alternative to the chemical family as a whole, most movement has been within the family towards slightly heavier and more stable compounds. Help yourself to any wording you like, but you’ll probably need to do your own research based on the Australian markets. And as you’re doubtless aware, identifying what you’re exposed to and in what ways is pretty hard.

Mind if I steal some of your wording when I send out my email to the relatives?