News Coverage
Study: Fire retardant leaves chemicals behind in women
Published September 22, 2003
Tests of breast milk from mothers around the country suggest that nearly all American women have at least some level of chemical fire retardants in their bodies and that these levels are rising, according to a new study.
The Environmental Working Group, a national group that focuses on chemical pollution, found a group of bromine-based fire retardants known as PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in the breast milk of 20 new mothers in 14 states.
The chemicals were found in all the samples tested, from a low of 9.5 parts per billion in the milk of a mother from Nashville, Tenn., to a high of 1,078 parts per billion in the milk of a mother in Raytown, Mo. The average amount of the chemicals found was higher than in any previous study of fire retardants and 75 times greater than the average amounts found in recent studies of European women.
The Environmental Working Group study, released Tuesday, builds on several other studies of women in the United States, Europe and Canada - including two studies reported earlier this year by researchers in Texas and Indiana.
The chemicals were detected in all women in studies since the chemical fire retardants have come into widespread use, said Sonya Lunder, co-author of the study. The results indicate that such contamination has become "ubiquitous" in American women and that the average level of the chemicals in women's bodies is increasing over time, the study said.
The average level of the fire retardants found in the study was 159 ppb. Six of the mothers had levels above 100 ppb, with two participants exceeding 700 ppb. The highest level previously reported in the United States was 580 ppb in maternal blood lipid for a woman in central Indiana.
"I was a little shocked," said Margaret Hardin, 31, of Evergreen, Colo., a former high school science teacher who gave birth to a son in February. The level in her breast milk was 201 ppb.
"What really concerns me is the chemical load in general that we're exposing our young children to," Hardin said.
"If we could eliminate PBDEs, that would be one less thing that these little guys would have to deal with."
None of the women in the study had any special exposure to the chemicals that they knew of, the Working Group said.
"Finding these chemicals in breast milk shows the shocking extent to which industrial toxins are invading our bodies," said Lunder. "Brominated fire retardants don't belong in breast milk, they don't belong in babies, and they should be phased out as soon as possible."
A spokesman for Bromine Science and Environmental Forum, which represents the world's top three PBDE makers, said the results of the Working Group's study were "reassuring" because the levels in the women's breast milk were too low to present a health hazard.
"These are very, very low numbers if you are talking about in milk fat," said Peter O'Toole, the U.S. representative for the forum. "It just demonstrates that there is no risk to children or people."
Brominated fire retardants are a group of closely related chemicals that are used in thousands of every day products, including furniture cushions, computers, TV sets, automobiles and carpet padding.
Some PBDEs have also been shown to impair attention, learning, memory and behavior in tests of laboratory animals, the study said. Fire retardants in breast milk are one measure of the chemicals that a mother passes on not only to her nursing infant, but more importantly, to the unborn fetus, which is most vulnerable to impacts from neurotoxic chemicals, the report said.
Most PBDEs used in North America are made by two companies: Great Lakes Chemical Corp. of West Lafayette, Ind., and Albemarle Corp. of Richmond, Va. The two companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress and state legislatures against restrictions on the chemicals, the study said.
PBDEs are thought to enter the human body through exposures to contaminated food, house dust and air, the study said. The highest levels of PBDEs in foods are typically found in fish. Levels of all PBDEs in house dust and sewage sludge in the United States are markedly higher than in Europe.