Flame Retardant Chemicals Found In Childrens Blood
Posted on: Thursday, 4 September 2008, 13:15 CDT
Researchers from the Environmental Working Group found that blood from toddlers and preschoolers had 3 times the concentration of a fire retardant chemical used in common household products than the levels found in their mothers.
The study marks the first investigation of these toxic fire retardants in parents and their children. Researchers studied a group of 20 families by taking blood samples from mothers and their children.
They concluded that concentrations of hormone-disrupting chemicals known as PBDEs were significantly higher in children than their mothers.
A total of 11 different flame retardants were found in these children, and 86 percent of the time the chemicals were present at higher levels in the children than their mothers.
“To us, this raises concerns that kids live very differently in the same environment than their parents do and those kid-like behaviors put them at risk for contaminant exposure," said Sonya Lunder, the study’s author.
Lunder said the study’s findings suggest that children are exposed to more flame retardant chemicals because they often touch household items that contain PDBEs and put their hands in their mouths.
They also eat more and drink more, proportionally, than their mothers do, and food and drink can contain these chemicals, she said.
Two forms of PBDEs are no longer made in the United States but are still present in items in U.S. homes, the study said.
The largest volume of PBDEs are in electronics in a form called Deca, which is banned in European electronics and in some U.S. states, according to the study.
Researchers found a form of Deca in their study. Deca is a heavily used flame retardant that has largely escaped restrictions because few labs can reliably test for it.
These high exposures early in life point to a previously undocumented, serious, and disproportionate risk to young children, researchers said.
The chemical industry is waging a high-stakes effort to keep Deca on the market, claiming it poses no health risk. But EWG claims that its tests prove that Deca enters people’s bodies, and is polluting children’s blood at much higher levels than adults’. Deca was detected in 65 percent of children and 45 percent of adults.
"Flame retardants save actual human lives, and no illness, ailment or harm to any human anywhere has ever been reported as a result of exposure to Deca, even among those who work producing the material," said John Kyte, spokesman for the Bromine Science and Environment Forum.
The study cited peer-reviewed tests that showed a single dose of PBDEs given to mice on a single day when their brains were growing rapidly can cause permanent behavior changes, including hyperactivity.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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