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More than 1,400 tons of PBDEs were imported into Canada in commercial products in 2000 alone.

Fire and health — a trade-off?

Chemicals that keep flames low are heating up concern across Canada

Our homes and boats and workplaces may not be burning down as often, or as badly, but what price are we paying? That’s the question a lot of us are asking as recent Canadian-based research made headlines, raising even more concern over the health effects of chemicals used as flame retardants.

The study, done by Dr. Miriam Diamond, a geography professor at the University of Toronto, concluded that chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs or brominated fire retardants for short) are showing up in higher levels in babies and toddlers than in adults, and from sources that many find surprising. The research heats up the fire retardant debate, especially since a number of recent studies have reported that levels of PBDEs in humans and in various environmental samples have been increasing.

According to an article in the Globe and Mail , Dr. Diamond’s research indicates that the average urban Canadian takes in 155 to 1,965 nanograms of PBDEs every day. Babies who breast feed take in even higher amounts – 24 to 28,680 nanograms daily. (Research last year showed that Canadian mothers had the second highest level in the world of PBDEs in their blood.)

So where are these PBDEs in people coming from?

Two everyday sources, according to Dr. Diamond’s research, which will be published in an upcoming edition of Environmental Science and Technology , a journal published by the American Chemical Society: dust and food. (Previous U.S. research showed that food was the main source.)

While no definitive studies have confirmed the effects of these "persistent organic pollutants" found in humans and the environment, brominated fire retardants have been shown to be powerful thyroid disruptors in lab animals. And in test tube experiments, they’ve been found to interfere with human thyroid transport and metabolism.

They might also impair the immune system. As well, some scientists say they might be linked to learning disorders, like attention deficit disorder. One report from a Swedish university suggested that brain development could be affected, especially in early stages, after newly born mice showed neurobehavioral effects at low doses.

According to the American Chemical Society, an interesting case has surfaced. A young man developed symptoms similar to those of dioxin exposure. These included chloracne (as the new Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko suffered after being poisoned by dioxins) and lesions on his feet. At age 13 he developed these health problems after playing computer games for hours a day in an unventilated room. Although it’s impossible to pin down exact cause and effect, when he was 21, PBDEs were found in his fat and parts of his computer monitor.

On top of all this, studies show that despite a ban of some brominated fire retardants in some jurisdictions – the EU and some U.S. states, namely California, Hawaii and Maine – and some voluntary withdrawals, like those by Ikea and Sony, the use of PDBEs is still increasing sharply.

It now hovers somewhere around 180,000 tons a year, with 40 per cent of the use occurring in North America. Swedish research shows that from 1972-1997, the levels of PBDEs in breast milk increased by more than 50 times.

What are these nasty chemicals?

PBDEs – there are seven different ones – are added to a huge range of consumer products, especially electronic equipment, to make them more difficult to burn. They work by slowing and stopping the basic chemical reactions that drive oxygen-dependent fires. Computers, televisions, textiles, carpets, upholstery, cars, building materials, furniture, electronic circuit boards, wire and cable insulation, foam, even offshore drilling – just about anywhere that plastics are used you’ll find PBDEs. And they can constitute up to 30 per cent of the finished product.

Because brominated fire retardants are added to rather than "reacted" within the product they can leach out under certain conditions and enter the environment. And they are being found literally everywhere – in land, air and water, and now, as Dr. Diamond’s research shows, in the ordinary dust kicking around your house.

Research has found them in the Arctic and in a wide variety of fish and marine mammals, including dolphins and sperm whales. They were found in the dust and smoke after the World Trade Center disaster. Another worrisome trend: they show up in fertilizers made from sewage sludge that are applied to agricultural crops.

Where should we be on the worry meter?

In the Globe and Mail report, Linda Birnbaum, associate director for the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says that public concerns over brominated fire retardants are justified, even if it is hard to nail down the impact of PBDEs on health.

"These are not chemicals you are going to get a dose of and immediately die. They are chemicals that are present in very low levels in our bodies … but they build up. And part of the concern is, they will continue to build up to a level that they will cause problems," she says.

In the U.S., the EPA is trying to develop standards for safe levels of exposure to PBDEs, but establishing such a threshold is not that easy. Canada is in a similar wishy-washy boat.

Right now, PBDEs are not manufactured in Canada and two of the more toxic ones are banned, but they do enter the country via finished articles. More than 1,400 tons of PBDEs were imported in commercial products in 2000 alone. (This figure does not include volumes imported in finished articles.)

While Environment Canada is "working with industry and other stakeholders to prepare a strategy to minimize the impact of PBDEs on the environment," agencies like the Sierra Legal Defense Fund are urging Canadian regulatory agencies to take stronger action now.

Besides writing a cheque to the Sierra Legal Defense Fund and vacuuming more often, what can you do? Write or e-mail your MP to express your concern. Support companies like Ikea and Sony, which have eliminated PBDEs from their products. Make sure your old computer and TV don’t end up in a landfill. And open a window while you surf the web.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who is donating her old computer to a wildlife agency.



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