Manufacturers stopped using chemical flame retardants in furniture but many of the compounds still loiter in homes. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), found in flame retardants in furniture, are connected with behavior and learning difficulties during early childhood. Researchers found that children with mothers who had high PBDE levels showing learning deficits when the children were 5 years old. If the mother’s blood had a 10-fold increase in PBDEs, the average five-year-old had about a four-point IQ deficit. "However, in a population, if many children are affected, the social and economic impact can be huge due to the shift of IQ distribution and productivity,” says lead author Aimin Chen, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Other researchers have measured both mother and child PBDE levels and found similar deficits, strengthening Chen's conclusion that deficits result from additional exposure to the chemical children encounter after they are born.
Scientists believe that PBDEs can lodge themselves in a human body's lipids when contaminated air is inhaled or tainted dust swallowed. Tests on animals suggest that the chemicals disrupt the endocrine system. PBDEs strongly resembles thyroid hormones, and they affect thyroid regulation and decrease the level of thyroid hormones in the blood of animals. These hormones push growth and development, especially brain development. Animal studies have also found that exposure to PBDEs in the womb may damage the thyroid system and affect newborns’ brains. Children are at high risk of encountering hazardous dust because they crawl and play on the floor and put their hands in their mouth constantly. The use of flame retardants and polyurethane foams in carpet pads stopped in 2004 but they are still in old furniture. A California state law still lets furniture makers use flame retardants but California is revising its standard so that products will only have to pass a smolder test that would prevent fires but would not require flame retardant use in manufacturing.
I always thought that flame retardants were good because they prevent fires but then I learned that they contain the chemical PBDE. It's good that the use of PBDE has stopped but there are still old furniture that contain it. Products that contain PBDE should be labeled and parents can tell their children to wash their hands to diminish dust ingestion, and by replacing old furniture and changing old carpet padding, which will reduce exposure. Telling people about PBDE being in old furniture and in dust on the floor where the children constantly play on will surely make people buy new furniture. The risk of exposure and learning difficulties will reduce if everyone knew.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flame-retardants-linked-lower-iq-hyperactivitiy-children/
Article by Dina Fine Maron on May 6,2013.
Scientists believe that PBDEs can lodge themselves in a human body's lipids when contaminated air is inhaled or tainted dust swallowed. Tests on animals suggest that the chemicals disrupt the endocrine system. PBDEs strongly resembles thyroid hormones, and they affect thyroid regulation and decrease the level of thyroid hormones in the blood of animals. These hormones push growth and development, especially brain development. Animal studies have also found that exposure to PBDEs in the womb may damage the thyroid system and affect newborns’ brains. Children are at high risk of encountering hazardous dust because they crawl and play on the floor and put their hands in their mouth constantly. The use of flame retardants and polyurethane foams in carpet pads stopped in 2004 but they are still in old furniture. A California state law still lets furniture makers use flame retardants but California is revising its standard so that products will only have to pass a smolder test that would prevent fires but would not require flame retardant use in manufacturing.
I always thought that flame retardants were good because they prevent fires but then I learned that they contain the chemical PBDE. It's good that the use of PBDE has stopped but there are still old furniture that contain it. Products that contain PBDE should be labeled and parents can tell their children to wash their hands to diminish dust ingestion, and by replacing old furniture and changing old carpet padding, which will reduce exposure. Telling people about PBDE being in old furniture and in dust on the floor where the children constantly play on will surely make people buy new furniture. The risk of exposure and learning difficulties will reduce if everyone knew.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flame-retardants-linked-lower-iq-hyperactivitiy-children/
Article by Dina Fine Maron on May 6,2013.