Air Pollution, Carbon Monoxide, Smoke, Fire

If you thought mold was an insidious time bomb waiting to take out your home and you along with it, get a whiff of the dangers associated with a class of man-made toxins that are just about as ubiquitous.

Just as food manufacturers have rushed to emblazon their products with "low-carb" labels to sell the latest food fad, expect to soon see "No PBDE" labels popping up on everything from computers to wall hangings because of the latest home-based fear factor.

PBDEs are polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a group of chemicals used as fire retardants to reduce the risk of fire in a host of consumer products.

Though there has yet to be a direct link to health problems in humans, animal studies suggest the chemicals can disrupt brain development and contribute to cancer and neurological problems.

There's no problem if you don't breathe in or otherwise ingest the chemicals. Unfortunately, the chemicals don't stay put, making it more likely you will breathe in or ingest them.

That's because PBDEs are not bound to the products they are designed to protect from flames, so they easily escape into the air, attach to dust particles, land on food and get into water where they can be inhaled or ingested.

What's most troubling, consumers can do little to avoid PBDEs because there are no labels to show which products they're in and no way to tell how much dust in your house is contaminated.

Unless you remove everything in your home containing PBDEs and perform a hazardous materials sweep -- a cost prohibitive process -- there's just no escaping the toxin.

The stuff is so nasty, Hawaii recently banned them in a first-of-its-kind state law to clear the air of PBDE as well as octa (OBDE) and deca (DBDE) BDE's. Effective Jan. 1, 2006, Hawaii bans all products containing more than one-tenth of one percent PBDEs. Likewise, the European Union's ban is effective in mid-2006.

California's similar law isn't effective until 2008, and only bans the PBDE and OBDE varieties of the fire retardant. Among only six other states considering bans, only New York and Washington in addition to Hawaii, have addressed DBDE, the most volatile variety. It can break down and form the other two, which are more toxic and more easily absorbed by the body, according to studies.

The flame retardant chemicals are included in car seats, upholstery and drapery fabrics, household and office furniture, clothing and other textiles, televisions, stereos, personal computers and other electronics and hair dryers, toasters and other small appliances -- any of which can contain as much as 5 to 30 percent DBDE by weight.

In February this year, "Body Of Evidence: New Science In The Debate Over Toxic Flame Retardants And Our Health" by Yana Kucher and Meghan Purvis for the public issues watchdog, U.S. Public Interest Research Group's Education Fund, along with Environment California Research & Policy Center reported:

• Infant mice exposed to PBDEs and OBDEs suffer disrupted brain development, permanently impairing learning and movement.
• American women's breast milk and breast tissue contain some of the highest levels of PBDEs found worldwide.
• PBDEs found in some mothers and fetuses are rapidly approaching the levels shown to impair learning and behavior in animal lab testing.

Along with finding "striking" levels of PBDE in vacuumed household dust, "In The Dust, Toxic Fire Retardants In American Homes," by Environmental Working Group in Oakland, CA reported the chemicals caused aberrations in motor behavior, effects on learning and memory and decreased thyroid hormones in mice as well as decreased sperm counts and changes in the sub cellular structure of ovaries in rats.

The production of PBDE has doubled in the last decade to about 75 million pounds included in consumer products each year, according to California's Department of Toxic Substances Control.

When California's toxins department studied breast milk it reported "shocking" levels even though there has yet to be a direct link to health problems in humans.

Manufacturers of these chemicals are beginning to end production, but it's not certain if what replaces them will be any less toxic. Some chemical companies also are beginning to replace DBDEs with viable alternatives, according to "Body of Evidence."

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