Bucking a Toxic Trend

Bush has long known that being branded an environmental villain can be bad for business. In this case, he fears it might be bad for his soul too. While he is often skeptical of the claims of environmentalists, he has been deeply troubled to learn that a flame retardant used in foam might be disrupting development of babies' brains.

Last year, Bush set out to make Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co. the first polyurethane foam company in the United States to eliminate brominated flame retardants.

In the world of manufacturing, environmental revolutions are often born at a single assembly line where a freethinker like Bush takes a risk and tries something new. As the largest manufacturer of foam used in furniture, Bush is in a unique position to affect the future of his industry.

But doing the right thing and making a buck aren't always compatible.

In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Hickory Springs produces enough foam every day to fashion 40,000 sofa seats, it turns out that protecting the planet isn't easy.

For half a century, polyurethane foam has been the backbone of upholstered furniture, replacing old-fashioned latex that crumbles and tears. Resilient but soft, foam gives a sofa its springy comfort, a recliner its body-molded support.

Its only drawback is how quickly it burns. A smoldering cigarette or a match can ignite foam cushions like a torch.

Since the mid-1980s, foam companies have relied on a compound, called penta, to slow the spread of flames in furniture cushions enough to meet California's flammability standards, the nation's most stringent. Most furniture sold elsewhere does not need fire-retardant foam, although some national manufacturers put it in all their products.

Penta, a type of polybrominated diphenyl ether, or PBDE, has been cheap, effective and versatile for the foam industry. About 20 million pounds are used yearly, almost entirely in the United States.