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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlame Retardants Linked to Lower IQs, Hyperactivity in Children
Researchers investigating the health impacts of prenatal exposure to flame retardants collected blood samples from 309 pregnant women early in their second trimester. Spikes in the levels of one class of flame retardant, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) correlated with behavior and cognition difficulties during early childhood.
The researchers tracked children through the first five years of their lives, looking at a battery of tests for IQ and behavior. They found that children of mothers who had high PBDE levels during their second trimester showed cognition deficits when the children were five years old as well as higher rates of hyperactivity at ages two to five. If the mothers blood had a 10-fold increase in PBDEs, the average five-year-old had about a four-point IQ deficit. A four-point IQ difference in an individual child may not be perceivable in ordinary life. 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. The findings, based on women and children from Cincinnati, will be presented May 6 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Washington, D.C. The unpublished results have been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, but the paper has not yet been accepted.
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Scientists believe that in humans PBDEs can lodge themselves in bodily lipids when contaminated air is inhaled or tainted dust swallowed, although exactly how they may wreak havoc inside the body remains unknown. Tests on animals suggest that the chemicals disrupt the endocrine system. The chemical structure of PBDEs strongly resembles thyroid hormones, and they affect thyroid regulation and decrease the level of thyroid hormones in the blood of animals. These hormones drive growth and developmentin particular, brain development. Animal studies have also found that exposure to PBDEs in the womb and via nursing may damage the thyroid system and alter newborns brains.
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Furniture-makers have continued to use flame retardants because of a state lawthe California Technical Bulletin 117. It says the furniture sold within state borders must withstand a 12-second exposure to a small flame without igniting. That state regulation has become the de facto law of the land as manufacturers have sought to comply with it so they can sell their wares throughout the U.S. 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. State legislators may finalize the revision later this summer or in the fall.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=flame-retardants-linked-lower-iq-hyperactivitiy-children
hedda_foil
(16,374 posts)LeftInTX
(25,323 posts)That was 20 year ago. I don't know if it's the same anymore.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Mugu
(2,887 posts)My SO had an old couch that she needed to get rid of. So, I carted it to my house and put it on the burn-pile. Neither of us expected what happened when I lit it. The fire probably didn't last longer than a minute or two, but it was real memorable. If I hadn't put it on the pile and lit it myself, I would have sworn that it had been doused with an accelerant.
The story of that old couch comes up from time to time and we're both still horrified to think that it was once in her home.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Apparently the consumer protection people didn't talk to the environmental hazards people about the medical consequences of flame retardants used to meet the standard.
Probably the more flammable fabrics should have been prohibited, rather than being treated with chemicals.