Flame retardants are the suspected source of a new compound in the environment

摘要

Ed Sverko didn't set out to find a new compound bioaccumulat-ing in fish when he and a group of Canadian colleagues began looking at a Lake Ontario sediment core sample to collect data on how the concentrations of the widely used Dechlo-rane Plus (DP) flame retar-dant changed over time. But the project, which resulted in a new ES&T research article (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es9025535) "developed on its own," as Sverko puts it. In the process, Sverko's group learned a great deal about how the retardant is produced, as well as identifying a com-pound that may confound its analysis.