Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team know just how pervasive PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or flame retardants) are. While studying killer whales to film the Ocean Futures Society documentary, Call of the Killer Whale (PBS, April 22), they discovered that these large mammals carry an inordinate burden of PBDEs in blood and body tissues.
Curious to see if the same was true of humans, Ocean Futures assistant producer Holly Lohuis and son Gavin - both organic vegetarians - submitted to blood tests and learned that they, too, had off-the-chart levels of PBDEs in their bodies.
These fire retardants have been used for decades in everything from rigid-foam structural computer and television components to carpets, mattresses, fire-retardant foams, and fire-proofing finishes for upholstery fabrics and drapes. In California, their use has been mandated in baby products since the 1970s, with the formulation changing from the older tris (2,3-dibromopropyl)to newer Deca-BDEs in the early 1990s.
PBDEs are very similar to PCBs, which were banned in 1977for their adverse health effects. Both are known endocrine disruptors, which can cause a number of serious health effects across the whole range of mammalian and amphibianlife, from learning disabilities to memory impairment, as well as hyperactivity, hearing problems, behavioral changes, thyroid hormone disturbances, delayed puberty, decreased sperm count, ovarian tissue defects, diabetes, obesity and cancer.
In human environments, the gradual degradation of flame retardants releases dustwhich is breathed and ingested, creating long-term exposures which have serious consequences for the young of every species. Flame retardants are persistentin the environment and their aggregation in living tissue over time, called bioaccumulation, leads to greater and greater defects. In humans, chemically-depressed levels of thyroid hormones as a result of PBDE ingestion are more than 2.5 times as likelyto produce children with IQs of less than 85, and 5 times as likely to produce children whose IQs fall into the mildly retarded category (less than 70).
Few long-term U.S. studies have been done on humans. One, by Environmental Working Groupon post-delivery American women during 2002 and 2003 showed levels of 35 different PBDEs ranging from 9.5 to 1,078 parts per billion (ppb) in breast milk - the highest level ever recorded. In fact, Americans have from 10 to 100 times more PBDEs in breast milk, blood and body fat than Europeans, Asians or New Zealanders, and these levels have continued to rise rapidly since 1978.
Deca, the newest generation of flame retardants and the only one not banned in many countries, is found in TVs, electronics, textiles, furniture, and most notably in baby furnishings (per California statutes), and represents enormous potential harm to the future development of infants of all species. Currently, U.S. manufacturing uses more than 40 percentof the Deca-BDE produced worldwide. Deca itself accounts for 80 percent of PBDE manufacture, and is comprised of almost 97 percent pure brominated diphenyl ether.
So far, only the states of Washington and Maine have banned these Deca-BDEs in mattresses and furniture upholstery, with Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Oregon considering similar bans. California has Deca-BDE slated for removal as part of its Green Chemistry Initiative, and Environment Canadais apparently opting to follow the European Union (EU) in terms of phaseout legislation. Both initiatives are being heavily targeted by chemical manufacturing lobbyists.
In Europe, Sweden, which formerly banned Deca, was forced to lift the ban after a 10-year EU risk assessment (using the precautionary principle) found no significant risks. Only Norway continues to ban Deca, with the rest of the EU operating under a RoHS (hazardous chemical regulation) Directive which prohibits Deca in textiles and mattresses, but continues to allow them elsewhere. Pending (and reversible) legislation to phase out Deca-BDEs by 2011 creates a truly schizophrenic scenario in Europe, with the chemical manufacturing lobby using its clout to assure continued production.
An alarming April 1 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that flame retardants, or PBDEs are now found in all U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with seriously elevated levels near urban and industrial centers. This is in stark contrast to samples taken in 1996 which showed only a few sites containing PBDEs.
Cousteau and his team, joined by Dr. Arlene Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, and Dr. Peter Ross, a marine with Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences), are working to eliminate these Deca-BDEs from the environment. You can do your part, first by supporting the Ocean Futures Societycampaign, then by learning moreabout the dangers of flame retardants, and finally by checking clothing and household goods labeled with this warning - Technical Bulletin 117 (TB 117) - beforepurchasing.
You can also replace potentially contaminated household goods like furniture fabrics, bedding, drapes, carpets and clothing with 100-percent organic materials like cotton, wool, hemp and natural latex, and use high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters in vacuums and air cleaners to remove contaminated dust from your home.
Be proactive. In a recent interview, Holly Lohuis admitted she was amazed to discover how high the burden was for her and her son, in spite of the fact that they live in a small house with few products that would contribute to such a burden. Holly's advice:
"American parents need to become aware of the kinds of chemicals that are added to products which threaten their children's health and safety. These chemicals (Deca-BDEs) are not backed by health studies which show they are, indeed, safe products to provide security against fires. Therefore, we need to be preventative and to educate ourselves, and this information needs to be made readily available at both the product and political level, so that we can proactively minimize these exposures."
Unfortunately, testing for body-burdens of toxic flame retardants is expensive and not readily available to the general public, even through a concerned physician. If you are, like Holly, disturbed by the findings, you can get an estimate at InsideBayArea, or contact the Department of Toxic Substances Control via e-mail at: green.chemistry@dtsc.ca.gov, or visit their site (www.dtsc.ca.gov/ContactDTSC/index.cfm) for other contact methods.
Please help the Ocean Futures Society in any way you can. Our future as a species is shared with those species living in the oceans of the world, and this future is being stolen from us by chemicals that make P.D. James' future (as portrayed in Children of Men) look like a logical scenario which plays out to an inevitable end: extinction.
This article was contributed to Celsias by Jeanne Roberts
Celsias is a Premier Content Partner of SustainLane. Be Informed, Take Action on Climate Change - www.Celsias.com.
