Projects
07: Brominated flame retardants and other endocrine disrupting chemicals in the ecosystem of Thunersee - environmental fate and correlation to biological effects (FLEET).
Exposure to brominated flame retardants
Brominated flame retardants may display endocrine-disrupting effects. Here, exposure to these chemicals and their transformation products will be investigated in the environment, in animals and in humans.
Kohler Martin, EMPA, Dübendorf
e-mail: martin.kohler@empa.ch
Background
Flame retardants are additives that can be added to or applied as a treatment to organic materials such as plastics, textiles and timber. There are several fairly recent scientific studies that show the endocrine-disrupting activity of brominated flame retardants. Moreover, there is a suspicion that transformation of these substances in the environment may lead to products with even greater hormonal activity than the parent compounds. At present, some data exist on the occurrence of brominated flame retardants in the environment, but knowledge of the transformation products is sparse.
Aim
This project intends to investigate the environmental levels of and animal and human exposure to several classes of brominated flame retardants and their transformation products. In order to find and identify transformation products, we will focus on bromine-containing compounds in matrices such as sewage sludge and fish.
The three main tasks of this project will be: to develop analytical methods for brominated flame retardants and their transformation products, to collect data on these chemicals in scientifically relevant sample materials, and to implement the results.
Significance
It is expected that the data from this project will contribute to a sound assessment of the endocrine-disrupting potential resulting from brominated flame retardants and their transformation products. The results will supply information on the extent of exposure to brominated flame retardants in humans, domestic and wild animals and the environment.
The biotransformation products, as identified by this study, may be tested in future projects to give a more complete picture of the effects and the fate of this class of compound in the environment.