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      Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Marine Ecosystems of the American Continents: Foresight from Current Knowledge

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      Reviews on Environmental Health
      Walter de Gruyter GmbH

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          An overview of brominated flame retardants in the environment

          The presence of brominated flame retardant (BFR) chemicals, and particularly polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), has become of increasing concern to scientists over the past decade. Environmental studies conducted primarily in Europe, Japan and North America indicate that these chemicals are ubiquitous in sediment and biota. The levels of PBDEs seem to be increasing, and several trends, including in humans, indicate that this increase may be rapid. The occurrence of high concentrations of certain PBDE isomers may be sufficient to elicit adverse effects in some wildlife. There is also concern that levels could cause adverse effects in sensitive human populations such as young children, indigenous peoples, and fish consumers. However, our knowledge about these chemicals, their sources, environmental behavior, and toxicity is limited, making risk assessment difficult. In this paper, the current state of knowledge is reviewed and areas for further research recommended to improve future monitoring and risk assessment efforts.
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            An overview of commercially used brominated flame retardants, their applications, their use patterns in different countries/regions and possible modes of release.

            Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are used in a variety of consumer products and several of those are produced in large quantities. These compounds have been detected in environmental samples, which can be attributed to the anthropogenic uses of these compounds. Brominated flame retardants are produced via direct bromination of organic molecules or via addition of bromine to alkenes; hence, an overview of the production and usage of bromine over the past three decades is covered. Production, application, and environmental occurrence of high production brominated flame retardants including Tetrabromobisphenol A, polybrominated biphenyls, Penta-, Octa-, Deca-brominated diphenyl ether (oxide) formulation and hexabromocyclododecane are discussed.
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              Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in the environment and in people: a meta-analysis of concentrations.

              Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used as flame retardants in many types of consumer products. Perhaps as a result of their widespread use and their lipophilicity, these compounds have become ubiquitous in the environment and in people. This review summarizes PBDE concentrations measured in several environmental media and analyzes these data in terms of relative concentrations, concentration trends, and congener profiles. In human blood, milk, and tissues, total PBDE levels have increased exponentially by a factor of approximately 100 during the last 30 yr; this is a doubling time of approximately 5 yr. The current PBDE concentrations in people from Europe are approximately 2 ng/g lipid, but the concentrations in people from the United States are much higher at approximately 35 ng/g lipid. Current PBDE concentrations in marine mammals from the Canadian Arctic are very low at approximately 5 ng/g lipid, but they have increased exponentially with a doubling time of approximately 7 yr. Marine mammals from the rest of the world have current PBDE levels of approximately 1000 ng/g lipid, and these concentrations have also increased exponentially with a doubling time of approximately 5 yr. Some birds' eggs from Sweden are also highly contaminated (at approximately 2000 ng/g lipid) and show PBDE doubling times of approximately 6 yr. Herring gull eggs from the Great Lakes region now have PBDE concentrations of approximately 7000 ng/g lipid, and these levels have doubled every approximately 3 yr. Fish from Europe have approximately 10 times lower PBDE concentrations than fish from North America. From these and other data, it is clear that the environment and people from North America are very much more contaminated with PBDEs as compared to Europe and that these PBDE levels have doubled every 4-6 yr. Analyses of the relative distributions of the most abundant PBDE congeners (using category averages and principal component analysis) indicated that these patterns cannot yet be used to assign sources to these pollutants.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Reviews on Environmental Health
                Walter de Gruyter GmbH
                2191-0308
                0048-7554
                January 2009
                January 2009
                : 24
                : 3
                Article
                10.1515/REVEH.2009.24.3.157
                93a55570-8277-4a3a-9dcd-17954bb1d848
                © 2009
                History

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