Flame Retardant Chemicals Taint All U.S. Coastal Waters
WASHINGTON, DC, April 1, 2009 (ENS) - Chemicals used as flame retardants
in consumer products since the 1970s now are found in all U.S. coastal
waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial
centers, according to a federal government report issued today.
The nationwide survey found that New York's Hudson-Raritan Estuary had the
highest overall concentrations of the chemicals, both in sediments and
shellfish, but scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration found polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs, in all U.S.
coastal waters.
These toxic chemicals are used as flame retardants in building materials,
electronics, furnishings, motor vehicles, plastics, polyurethane foams and
textiles.
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances says that the concentrations of
PBDEs in human blood, breast milk, and body fat indicate that most Americans
are exposed to low levels of PBDEs. A growing body of research points to
evidence that exposure to PBDEs may produce detrimental health effects in
animals, including humans.
Toxicological studies indicate that liver, thyroid and neurobehavioral
development may be impaired by exposure to PBDEs and they have been found to
impair the immune systems of animals. These chemicals are known to pass from
mother to infant in breast milk.
"This is a wake-up call for Americans concerned about the health of our
coastal waters and their personal health," said John Dunnigan, NOAA
assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service.
"Scientific evidence strongly documents that these contaminants impact the
food web and action is needed to reduce the threats posed to aquatic
resources and human health," he said.
Based on data from NOAA's Mussel Watch Program, which has been monitoring
coastal water contaminants for 24 years, the new findings are in contrast to
analysis of samples as far back as 1996 that identified PBDEs in only a
limited number of sites around the nation.
Individual sites with the highest PBDE measurements were found in shellfish
taken from Anaheim Bay, California, and four sites in the Hudson-Raritan
Estuary. This estuary, with its 650 miles of shoreline, hosts the Port of
New York and New Jersey and is fed by waters from the Hudson, Hackensack,
Passaic and Raritan Rivers, which drain major watersheds of New York and New
Jersey.
High PBDE concentrations also were documented in the Southern California
Bight, Puget Sound, the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico off the Tampa-St.
Petersburg, Florida coast, and Lake Michigan waters near Chicago and Gary,
Indiana.
PBDEs get into the environment from runoff and municipal waste incineration
and sewage outflows, the report found. Other pathways include leaching from
aging consumer products, land application of sewage sludge as bio-solids,
industrial discharges and accidental spills.
The chemicals do not dissolve easily in water, but stick to particles and
settle to the bottom of rivers or lakes.
Similar in chemical structure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, the
flame retardants have raised concerns among scientists and regulators that
their impacts on human health will prove equally adverse.
PBDE production has been banned in a number of European and Asian countries.
In the United States, production of most PBDE mixtures has been voluntarily
discontinued.
The NOAA Mussel Watch survey found that the highest concentrations of PBDEs
in the U.S. coastal zone were measured at industrial and urban locations.
Still, the chemicals have been detected in remote places far from major
sources, which NOAA says is evidence of atmospheric transport.
People may be exposed to PBDEs from eating foods or breathing air
contaminated with the chemicals, according to the Agency for Toxic
Substances.
Workers involved in the manufacture of PBDEs or products that contain PBDEs
may be exposed to higher levels than usual. Occupational exposure also can
occur in people who work in enclosed spaces where PBDE-containing products
are repaired or recycled.
"We do not know whether PBDEs can cause cancer in humans," says the Agency
for Toxic Substances. "Rats and mice that ate food with decabromodiphenyl
ether - one type of PBDE - throughout their lives, developed liver tumors.
Based on this evidence, the EPA has classified decabromodiphenyl ether as a
possible human carcinogen."
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Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.
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