Oct. 2--Californians have double the amount of toxic flame retardants in their blood as the national average, a health concern for babies, children and pregnant women, scientists reported Wednesday.
The high disparity most likely is the unintended result of California's pioneering fire-safety standard on home furnishings, which has manufacturers adding long-lived chemical retardants to polyurethane foam in sofas and carpet pads, the scientists said.
"This unique standard in California has increased Californians' exposure to these chemicals," said the study's lead author, Ami Zota, a scientist with the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts.
"We were able to show this really striking difference ... in the blood and in household dust," Zota said.
Ingredients of flame retardants called PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), were found in the dust of California homes at four to 10 times the levels found elsewhere in the country and 200 times higher than in Western Europe, according to the peer-reviewed study published online Wednesday in Environmental Science & Technology journal.
The chemicals are released in the ordinary wear-and-tear of cushioned furniture and carpets and presumed to enter the bloodstream through inhalation or ingestion. Toddlers tested in California have been shown to have higher levels of the retardant chemicals in their blood, perhaps because of their frequent crawling and hand-to-mouth contact.
The findings come as the state Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation plans to extend the flammability standard to foam pillows, mattresses and bed coverings sold in California.
"All we are charged with doing is establishing the flammability standards," said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for state Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the bureau. "How the manufacturers get there is their own business, as far as the bureau is concerned."
Earlier this week, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law a pair of "green chemistry" bills that create by 2011 a system for evaluating chemicals of emerging health concern and for identifying safer alternatives before the substances become widespread in consumer products. The new law allows the state to restrict or ban chemicals of concern.
Tests on animals show PBDEs disrupt thyroid hormones, which guide brain development, and sex hormones, which control reproduction. At most risk are babies, who are exposed in the womb and through breast-feeding.
"We know small changes in women's thyroid system can make a big impact on babies' developing nervous system and brain," Zota said.
California moved to ban two PBDE formulations in 2004 after scientists found them accumulating in people and wildlife at an alarming pace. The compounds penta-BDE and octa-BDE were to be phased out by this year, but many homes still have furniture treated with these chemicals.
Zota and other scientists believe some of the substitute retardants known as halogenated compounds are equally worrisome and long-lived in the environment. "We think our results foreshadow what will happen with these substitute compounds," Zota said.
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