This HOT paper from 2010 Emerging Investigator Hans Peter Arp investigates levels of some lesser-studied brominated fire retardants.
Recent years have seen an increase in pressure to find ‘new’ fire retardants, that are less stringently regulated than their polybrominated biphenyl and polybrominated diphenyl ether cousins. Arp and colleagues looked at three brominated monoaromatics that have been in use for several decades and have been found in environmental samples, but have received far less overall attention.
Their findings indicate, that although there is not yet any cause for concern, the levels of the BFRs in samples (in particular hexabromobenzene) certainly warrant further study. The group are careful to point out that it is difficult at this stage to determine whether the levels reported suggest an increase in production levels, transformation products or interest by researchers, and that more information could be obtained through dated sediment or ice core studies.
This interesting article is currently free to access until April, so download the full paper today:
Presence and partitioning properties of the flame retardants pentabromotoluene, pentabromoethylbenzene and hexabromobenzene near suspected source zones in Norway
Hans Peter H. Arp, Thomas Møskeland, Patrik L. Andersson and Jenny Rattfelt Nyholm
J. Environ. Monit., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0EM00258E
