Toxic Flame Retardants Found in Puget Sound Women
February 24, 2004
SEATTLE--Today, Northwest Environment Watch (NEW), in partnership with Washington Toxics Coalition [an Earth Share of Washington member], released a report on levels of toxic flame retardants (PBDEs) found in the bodies of Puget Sound mothers. The analysis is the first set of results from a larger NEW study on body burdens in northwesterners and comes at a critical time, as the legislature is currently debating whether to fund a state program to phase out these toxic flame retardants and other persistent toxic chemicals. Here is an excerpt from the study:
The bodies of Puget Sound residents are contaminated by high levels of toxic flame-retardant compounds that are known to cause behavioral aberrations, learning deficits, and other health effects in laboratory animals. An analysis of breastmilk samples donated by nine Puget Sound mothers revealed high levels of the flame retardants in every sample tested. Concentrations of the chemicals were 20 to 40 times the levels found in Europe and Japan.
These flame retardants, known as PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), are commonly added to consumer and household products such as furniture foams, textiles, and consumer electronics. Studies on laboratory animals have shown that PBDEs can impair memory and learning, alter behavior, delay sexual development, and disturb thyroid hormone levels, among other toxic effects. PBDEs are structurally similar to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a now-banned class of chemicals that have been linked with a host of developmental delays and deficits in children.
"Because little is know about how PBDEs enter our bodies, there is little women can do short of eliminating these chemicals from the environment," according to Marianne O'Hare, a family physician specializing in maternal and child health.
To read the study in its entirety, please visit the Northwest Environment Watch website:
Flame Retardants in Puget Sound Residents