Total consumer exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers in North America and Europe.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been widely used as flame retardants in textiles, polyurethane foams, and plastics. PBDEs exert toxic effects in various organisms, including humans, and are ubiquitous in the outdoor and indoor environment. Here we estimate total daily PBDE doses received by consumers in North America and Europe, along with the most important pathways and congeners, and derive PBDE elimination half-lives for chronic exposure. We estimate distributions for all parameters (PBDE concentrations in exposure media, food consumption rates, etc.) and conduct a probabilistic exposure assessment. We find that Americans are exposed the most, likely due to stricter fire regulations, followed by consumers from the UK and Continental Europe. In the central quantiles of the exposure distributions derived, food is the dominant pathway; in the upper quantiles either food or oral and dermal exposure to dust. This reflects the lipophilic and persistent nature of PBDEs and their use in products for indoor-use. Median elimination half-lives are in a range of 1-3 years except for BDE-153 with about seven years and BDE-209 with 4-7 days.

[1]  Matthew Lorber,et al.  Exposure of Americans to polybrominated diphenyl ethers , 2008, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

[2]  Arnold Schecter,et al.  Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in U.S. mothers' milk. , 2003, Environmental health perspectives.

[3]  H. Neels,et al.  Exposure of the Flemish population to brominated flame retardants: model and risk assessment. , 2010, Environment international.

[4]  D. Burmaster,et al.  Using lognormal distributions and lognormal probability plots in probabilistic risk assessments , 1997 .

[5]  Peter Schmid,et al.  Anaerobic degradation of decabromodiphenyl ether. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[6]  P. Darnerud.  Toxic effects of brominated flame retardants in man and in wildlife. , 2003, Environment international.

[7]  K. Hungerbühler,et al.  PBDE exposure from food in Ireland: optimising data exploitation in probabilistic exposure modelling , 2011, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

[8]  Kevin C Jones,et al.  Organohalogen chemicals in human blood from the United Kingdom. , 2006, Environmental pollution.

[9]  A. Covaci,et al.  Optimization of the determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in human serum using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-electron capture negative ionization mass spectrometry. , 2005, Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences.

[10]  Åke Bergman,et al.  Children Show Highest Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in a California Family of Four: A Case Study , 2006, Environmental health perspectives.

[11]  Peter Höglund,et al.  Apparent Half-Lives of Hepta- to Decabrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Human Serum as Determined in Occupationally Exposed Workers , 2005, Environmental health perspectives.

[12]  Ronald A Hites,et al.  Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in the environment and in people: a meta-analysis of concentrations. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[13]  S. Madden,et al.  Absorption of [14C]-Tetrabromodiphenyl Ether (TeBDE) Through Human and Rat Skin In Vitro , 2006, Drug and chemical toxicology.

[14]  K. Jakobsson,et al.  Occupational exposure to commercial decabromodiphenyl ether in workers manufacturing or handling flame-retarded rubber. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[15]  J. Huwe,et al.  Accumulation, whole-body depletion, and debromination of decabromodiphenyl ether in male sprague-dawley rats following dietary exposure. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[16]  Gary W. Caldwell,et al.  Allometric scaling of pharmacokinetic parameters in drug discovery: Can human CL, Vss and t1/2 be predicted fromin-vivo rat data? , 2004, European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics.

[17]  N E R I S S A W U, † T H O M A S H E R R M A N N,et al.  Human Exposure to PBDEs : Associations of PBDE Body Burdens with Food Consumption and House Dust Concentrations , 2022 .

[18]  E. Wehler,et al.  Bioavailability and half-life of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) in rat , 2003, Xenobiotica; the fate of foreign compounds in biological systems.

[19]  C. D. de Wit.  An overview of brominated flame retardants in the environment. , 2002, Chemosphere.

[20]  Mohamed Abou-Elwafa Abdallah,et al.  Concentrations of brominated flame retardants in dust from United Kingdom cars, homes, and offices: causes of variability and implications for human exposure. , 2008, Environment international.

[21]  L. Herrero,et al.  Distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in human umbilical cord serum, paternal serum, maternal serum, placentas, and breast milk from Madrid population, Spain. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[22]  A. Piersma,et al.  A 28-day oral dose toxicity study in Wistar rats enhanced to detect endocrine effects of decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE). , 2008, Toxicology letters.

[23]  R. Hale,et al.  Detailed polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congener composition of the widely used penta-, octa-, and deca-PBDE technical flame-retardant mixtures. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[24]  D. Lenoir,et al.  Terminal elimination half-lives of the brominated flame retardants TBBPA, HBCD, and lower brominated PBDEs in humans , 2004 .

[25]  L. Hardell,et al.  Levels of brominated flame retardants in blood in relation to levels in household air and dust. , 2007, Environment international.