Banned compounds

摘要

Concern over the polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) class of compounds surfaced in 1998, when Swedish researchers reported finding the compounds in stored breast milk. From 1972 to 1997, the concentrations of these chemicals in human milk had shot up 60-fold. Toxicologists feared that the compounds' structural similarities to toxic, banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) meant the flame retardants might have a similar effect on the body.