Assessing human exposure to flame retardants in the indoor environment

摘要

Flame retardants (FRs) are chemicals that are added to natural and synthetic materials to improve their resistance to ignition or reduce flame spread after ignition occurs and may result in the reduction of injuries or deaths due to fire. FRs are used in a variety of consumer products and have been detected in many media, such as indoor air, house dust, and human body fluids. Incidental ingestion of household dust is believed to be a major source of human exposure to FRs. FRs have been under scrutiny due to their health effects in animal studies, which include reproductive and developmental toxicity, chronic organ toxicity, and cancer. An exposure assessment was performed to estimate human exposure to select FR chemicals in the indoor environment using available indoor air and household dust data from the home, office, child care, and car environments. These chemicals include (tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP), tris(chloropropyl) phosphate (TCPP), tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), triethyl phosphate (TEP), triphenyl phosphate (TPP), 2-ethylhexyl 2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (TBB), di(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophthalate (TBPH), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and antimony trioxide (ATO). Using a probabilistic exposure assessment methodology, an aggregate exposure assessment was performed resulting in an exposure assessment for each chemical, considering multiple routes of exposure (i.e., oral, dermal, inhalation). Infants and children 1 to <3 years experienced their highest exposures from TCPP levels in the home environment (indoor air and dust). The highest contributor for adult combined exposure was air and dust TCEP concentrations in the office environment. The FR studies and publications used in this assessment presented substantial information on exposure concentrations but often lacked information on experimental design, collection methodologies, and description of environments and FR sources, which limited the reliability of any conclusions.