Insignia, Toshiba TVs Tested Positive for Hazardous Materials, Allege 3 Green Groups

The casings of three Best Buy Insignia smart TVs and three Hisense-built Toshiba-branded Amazon Fire TV sets tested positive for hazardous organohalogen flame retardants, alleged three green groups Thursday in a report they called "Toxic TV Binge." A few of the sets also had traces of decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) retardants that are banned in five states, they said. The sets contained retardants “at percentage levels by weight in the plastic” that made them “a significant portion of the product,” said Toxic-Free Future, the Mind the Store campaign and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families. “These chemicals can migrate out of televisions and get into indoor air, household dust, and make their way into our bodies, posing risks to families and pets.” They bought the Insignia sets at a Best Buy store in Seattle where decaBDE is banned and the Toshiba TVs online from Amazon, they said. They sent samples of the plastic casings to a lab in Amsterdam for testing, they said. Best Buy didn’t respond to emails seeking comment, nor did Hisense and Amazon.