Brussels, 28/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Internal Market Council reached a political agreement on the directive that will ban the placing on the market of pentabromodiphenylether (penta-BDE). The Commission had in January proposed banning this substance used as flame retardants for foam and other filling in furniture, but environmentally toxic. Following linguistic adjustments, the Council will adopt its common position without discussion that will then be handed to the European Parliament for second reading. The Council did not take on board the amendment presented by the EP on first reading, calling for other substances of the same family, octaBDE and decaBDE, also to be banned, without waiting for the conclusions of the ongoing risk-assessments. It did, however, accept the amendment that sets the threshold limit admitted for penta-BDE in octa-BDE at 0.1%. The European Brominated Flame Retardant Industry Panel, member of Cefic, welcomed this decision, that recognises "the need to take account of emerging EU risk assessments on octa-BDE and deca-BDE, as well as the importance of these flame retardants in terms of saving lives and preventing injuries from fires".