THE AMERICAN COUNCILON SCIENCE AND HEALTH PRESENTS
Dr.Elizabeth Whelan,
President
ACSH, 1995 Broadway 2nd Floor, New York, NY10023
ACSH PRESENTS
Brominated Flame Retardants:
ABurning Issue
By William P. KucewiczArt Director:Jennifer Lee
AUGUST2006
AMERICAN COUNCILON SCIENCE AND HEALTH1995 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY10023-5860Phone: (212) 362-7044 • Fax: (212) 362-4919URLs: http://acsh.org • http://HealthFactsAndFears.comE-mail: acsh@acsh.org
ACSH accepts unrestricted grants on the condition that it is solely responsible for the conduct of its researchand the dissemination of its work to the public. The organization does not perform proprietary research, nordoes it accept support from individual corporations for specific research projects. All contributions toACSH—a publicly funded organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code—are taxdeductible.Copyright ©2006 by American Council on Science and Health, Inc.This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permis-sion.
ACSH WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE, WHO REVIEWED THIS PAPER.
Gordon W.Gribble, Ph.D.
The Dartmouth Professor of Chemistry Dartmouth College
Theodore R. Holford, Ph.D.
Head, Division of BiostatisticsYale University School of Medicine
William O. Robertson, M.D.
Medical Director Washington Poison Center
Roy F.Spalding, Ph.D.
Professor - Agronomy & HorticultureUniversity of Nebraska
Mark J. Utell, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Environmental MedicineUniversity of Rochester Medical Center
James J. Worman, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry Rochester Institute of Technology
Executive Summary.......................................................... 01Introduction ...................................................................... 01How Flame Retardants Work .......................................... 01Residential Fires Cost Lives ............................................. 03Flame Retardants Save Lives .......................................... 04Efforts to Ban PBDEs ....................................................... 05Warnings from Environmental Groups ......................... 08Human Exposure to PBDEs ............................................ 09Studies Find No Health Risk ............................................. 11DecaBDE in the Environment ........................................ 13Conclusions...................................................................... 13References ......................................................................... 14
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