Potential human exposure to halogenated flame-retardants in elevated surface dust and floor dust in an academic environment

Abstract

Most households and workplaces all over the world possess furnishings and electronics, all of which contain potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals to prevent fire hazards. Indoor dust is a recognized repository of these types of chemicals including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and non-polybrominated diphenyl ethers (non-PBDEs). However, no previous U.S. studies have differentiated concentrations from elevated surface dust (ESD) and floor dust (FD) within and across microenvironments. We address this information gap by measuring twenty-two flame-retardant chemicals in dust on elevated surfaces (ESD; n=10) and floors (FD; n=10) from rooms on a California campus that contain various concentrations of electronic products. We hypothesized a difference in chemical concentrations in ESD and FD. Secondarily, we examined whether or not this difference persisted: (a) across the studied microenvironments and (b) in rooms with various concentrations of electronics. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test demonstrated that the ESD was statistically significantly higher than FD for BDE-47 (p=0.01), BDE-99 (p=0.01), BDE-100 (p=0.01), BDE-153 (p=0.02), BDE-154 (p=0.02), and 3 non-PBDEs including EH-TBB (p=0.02), BEH-TEBP (p=0.05), and TDCIPP (p=0.03). These results suggest different levels and kinds of exposures to flame-retardant chemicals for individuals spending time in the sampled locations depending on the position of accumulated dust. Therefore, further research is needed to estimate human exposure to flame retardant chemicals based on how much time and where in the room individuals spend their time. Such sub-location estimates will likely differ from assessments that assume continuous unidimensional exposure, with implications for improved understanding of potential health impacts of flame retardant chemicals.

Human Indoor Exposure to Airborne Halogenated Flame Retardants: Influence of Airborne Particle Size

“…The ∑HFR air burdens within the gymnasiums (835 ng·m −3 ) were 20% greater than at the coaches’ residences (664 ng·m −3 ) and nearly double those collected at the residences/offices (440 ng·m −3 ) (Table 1). The functionality of the indoor space and the amount of HFR-containing products within contribute to indoor HFR dust burdens [1]. This may account for the higher gymnasium HFR air burdens, due to the presence of large amounts of polyurethane foam to reduce impact related injuries [24].…”

“…Halogenated flame-retardants (HFRs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), are used in a wide array of polymer-containing consumer products, and have been widely detected in indoor environments (e.g., air, dust, and surface films) [1,2,3]. To meet Californian (USA) 1975 home furniture flammability standards (Technical Bulletin 117 or TB 117 [4]), the Penta-BDE technical formulation, formally marketed as DE-71 (Great Lakes Chemical Corp. now Chemtura Corp., Philadelphia, PA, USA) and Bromkal 70-5DE (Chemische Fabrik Kalk, Köln, Germany), among others, were added to furniture padding (polyurethane foam) to slow ignition and the spread of household fire.…”

Spatiotemporal analysis of human exposure to halogenated flame retardant chemicals

“…For time estimation, all time spent in travel (car/taxi & bus), classroom, office, and laboratory were consolidated into independent categories; and the category of "other" was created from a composite of retail store, restaurant, travel (foot/bicycle), other outdoor space, and other indoor space. We used previously reported concentrations (see Table S1) of each FR chemical measure in each microenvironment, except for the "other" category for which the median value of all sampled locations was used (Allgood et al, 2017). Each study participant responded to questions about demographic characteristics.…”

“…Many U.S. FR studies have concentrated on sampling the home (Dodson et al, 2012;Johnson et al, 2010;Quiros-Alcala et al, 2011;Ward et al, 2014). However, FR chemical concentrations have been shown to vary across sampled locations (Allgood et al, 2017;Brommer and Harrad, 2015;Cequier et al, 2014;La Guardia and Hale, 2015;Mizouchi et al, 2015). Thus, accounting for where a person spends time is important for refining the precision of estimates of human exposure to FR chemicals.…”

“…Additionally, there is evidence that many FR chemical concentrations differ between elevated surface dust (ESD) and floor dust (FD) (Allgood et al, 2017;Al-Omran and Harrod, 2016;Björklund et al, 2012;Cequier et al, 2014;Xu et al, 2016). Yet many U.S. studies do not account for this difference (Dodson et al, 2012;Quiros-Alcala et al, 2011;Watkins et al, 2011).…”