The atmospheric deposition of polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs) was investigated at four locations in different suburban and urban functional districts of Guangzhou City. The annual deposition fluxes of total PBDD/Fs (eight 2,3,7,8-substituted tetra- to hexa-BDD/Fs) were in the range of 36-51 (mean 46) pg m(-2) day(-1), and the corresponding TEQ fluxes were estimated ...

Solvent-based separation method is presumably an efficient and environmentally beneficial approach for elimination of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The overall goal of this study was to evaluate possible effects of organic solvent on the behavior of BFRs during solvent-based processing of WEEE. We initiated a set of batch experiments f...

BACKGROUND Animal and in vitro studies demonstrated a neurotoxic potential of brominated flame retardants, a group of chemicals used in many household and commercial products to prevent fire. Although the first reports of detrimental neurobehavioral effects in rodents appeared more than ten years ago, human data are sparse. METHODS As a part of a biomonitoring program for environmental health...

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are present in many consumer products ranging from fabrics to plastics and electronics. Wide use of flame retardants can pose an environmental hazard, which makes it important to determine the mechanism of their toxicity. In the present study, dose-dependent toxicity of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), a flame retardant, was examined in male prepubertal rats (po...

No scientific data is available on emerging contaminants like brominated flame retardant (BFRs) including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polybrominated biphenyl (BB 153) levels in the abiotic environment of Fiji Islands. Concentrations of PBDEs and BB 153 were determined in soil and sediment from various land-use types from Fiji Islands. Generally, total concentrations of PBDEs and ...

1,2-Bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) is currently one of the most commonly applied novel brominated flame retardants. In this contribution, we analyze in detail the mechanisms pertinent to its thermal decomposition in view of analogous experimental findings. We demonstrate that a 1,3-hydrogen shift, leading to 2,4,6-tribromophenol (M9) and 1,3,5-tribromo-2-(vinyloxy)benzene (M10) molecu...

Introduction. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are currently the most widely studied class of additive brominated flame retardants (BFRs) that have been shown to bioaccumulate in wildlife and humans (Hites 2004). There are an increasing number of reports on PBDEs in top predator avian species (Norstrom et al. 2002; Verreault et al. 2005; McKinney et al. 2006). Specifically, the North Amer...

California's furniture flammability standard Technical Bulletin 117 (TB 117) is believed to be a major driver of chemical flame retardant (FR) use in residential furniture in the United States. With the phase-out of the polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) FR mixture PentaBDE in 2005, alternative FRs are increasingly being used to meet TB 117; however, it was unclear which chemicals were being ...

2 Carboxylesterases and Cause Serum Hypertriglyceridemia 3 Patrick J. Morris,§,† Daniel Medina-Cleghorn,§,† Ann Heslin,† Sarah M. King,‡ Joseph Orr,‡ 4 Melinda M. Mulvihill,† Ronald M. Krauss,‡ and Daniel K. Nomura*,† 5 †Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, 127 Morgan Hall, Berkeley, California 94720, 6 United States 7 ‡Children’s Hospital Oakla...