Flame retardants present in the air around Arctic: researchers

BEATRICE FANTONI
Postmedia News

WINDSOR, Ont. — New flame retardants meant to replace their toxic predecessors are showing up as far north as the Arctic.

These new findings raise a red flag that these chemicals need to be more closely examined to see if they accumulate in the environment and animals, according to Hayley Hung, a research scientist at Environment Canada, who found concentrations of tetrabromobenzoate (TBB) and tetrabromophthalate (TBPH) in both Canada’s High Arctic and the Tibetan Plateau.

“It’s not just a localized problem,” said Hung. “(They) could become a global pollutant.”

Hung said TBB and TBPH are among the components in Firemaster flame retardants that are used in everyday objects such as car upholstery, computer equipment, carpeting and polyurethane foam. They get into the air when they’re applied (usually sprayed) onto products.

The two compounds are meant to replace polybrominated diphenylether (PBDE) flame retardants after these were found to be toxic in the mid-2000s. (PBDEs have been detected in, for example, blood samples and breast milk and some studies suggest a connection between PBDE exposure and reduced fertility in women.)

Hung’s study as well as research by Ronald Hites at Indiana University shows particles from TBB and TBPH in air samples from cities and remote areas.

Hites and his team of researchers measured the presence of TBB and TBPH in more than 500 air samples collected over two years at sites around the Great Lakes, including Cleveland and Chicago, as well as further east in Point Petre, Ont.

The researchers found the concentration of TBB and TBPH molecules was doubling about every two years — which Hites said is “surprisingly fast” — and that the concentration was higher in urban areas, especially Cleveland.

The findings, published in the Jan. 3 issue of the Environmental Science and Technology, shows the environmental concentrations of TBB and TBPH are increasing relatively rapidly.

Hites added that more research needs to be done now to determine whether these new flame retardants are toxic.

What is even more surprising, however, is the presence of TBB and TBPH in very remote areas, said Hung, whose research was published in Environmental Pollution in February.

“This is the first evidence showing that these flame retardants have the long-range transport potential,” Hung said.

There are hardly any sources of flame retardants in Alert, Nunavut, and none in the uninhabited Tibetan Plateau, she said.

Hung and her team found TBB and TBPH in air samples collected over a year in Alert and 4,200 metres above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau.

In both places, the concentration of TBPH in the samples was found to be relatively high.

If these flame retardants can move in the air over thousands of kilometres, there is a risk they will affect people who do not even live near the sources of those chemicals, she said.

Hung pointed out that a concentration of a certain chemical in the air doesn’t necessarily mean a problem, and more research is necessary.

However, the ability to travel long distances is one of the criteria used to determine whether a chemical should be regulated under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which governs flame retardants. (The other criteria include degradation, bioaccumulation in living tissues, and toxicity.)