Issues > May/June 2005 (#108) > Learning Hazards: Toxic Fire Retardants And How To Avoid Them In Consumer Products And Food - The Executive Summary

Learning Hazards: Toxic Fire Retardants And How To Avoid Them In Consumer Products And Food - The Executive Summary

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Although the two most widespread varieties of PBDEs, penta- and octa-BDEs, are no longer being produced as of January 2005 by the Great Lakes Chemical Corporation, their sole U.S. manufacturer, their presence in long-lived consumer products, such as beds and sofas, ensures that exposures may continue for years. And until stocks of PBDE-treated foam run out, new furniture will still include it. On the legislative front, California is the only state that has passed legislation banning penta and octa PBDEs from products sold there (by 2006), and Maine and Hawaii have stated plans to do so. Currently and for at least the next year in California, there is no reason not to assume that new polyurethane furniture is PBDE-free.

New Studies Find PBDEs Approaching Unsafe Levels in U.S. Home's, Food and Blood

The following new findings are highlighted in this report.

*PBDEs are on the rise in the blood of Americans, in some cases surpassing levels of PCBs, which have been banned and are on the decline.

*The highest PBDE levels measured in humans are now comparable to levels linked to lower sperm counts and damaged ovaries in animal tests, according to Tom McDonald, Ph.D., M.P.H., until recently staff toxicologist in the California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, now senior toxicologist with the Arvesta Corporation, a producer of herbicides and insecticides.

*Farmed fish have the highest levels of PBDEs, on average, of all animal food groups tested by Dr. Schecter, a finding that confirms recent research by Ronald Hites, Ph.D, director of the Environmental Science Research Center at the University of Indiana School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "It's very similar to what we saw with dioxins, PCBs and other organic pollutants," Dr. Schecter says. "There's just a concentration of these [chemicals] in farmed catfish and other farm-grown fish. In general, wherever we looked we saw farmed fish had higher levels."

*PBDEs are present in house dust at levels up to 1,000 times or more higher than the levels found in food, suggesting that, unlike PCBs, which are mainly ingested in food, PBDEs are entering our bodies through both food and inhaling or ingesting dust. Dr. Schecter found almost 70,000 parts per billion (ppb) of PBDEs in vacuum sweepings, compared with 3 ppb in farmed salmon. The dust studies highlight the likelihood of exposures while cleaning or to children playing on the floor and bringing their contaminated hands to their mouths.

*Daily exposures to PBDEs in food for adults in the U.S. average 2.342 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day. For nursing infants, however, the daily PBDE intake is 126 ng/kg BW/day, or 54 times what adults take in. Still, doctors emphasize that, for their growth and development, babies continue to breast-feed. Mothers can, however, reduce PBDE exposures to both themselves and their infants.

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