News Coverage
Chemical alert
Published October 23, 2003
Unexpectedly high levels of flame retardant chemicals have turned up in the breast milk of 20 women from across the US.
Though small, the study adds to evidence that polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are rapidly accumulating in the fatty tissues of people and wildlife. The chemicals are used in products ranging from clothing to cars.
Some women had levels of PBDEs up to 75 times the average in Sweden, according to the non-profit Los Angeles-based Environmental Working Group, which sponsored the study. Similar levels have been shown to affect brain development in mice.
The group is urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to ban the most noxious PBDEs, as the European Union is doing. But the presence of other long-lived chemicals such as PBDs in breast milk will make it hard to discover what effect, if any, PBDEs have on our health. Makers of PBDEs argue that the flame retardants have saved millions of lives.