Brominated flame retardant: environmental and exposed individuals' health impact

Abstract

Since Antiquity, men have used chemicals to protect their goods against fire. Effective and easy to use, brominated flame retardants are used since decades massively in plastic industry. Such like other organohalogenated compounds, brominated flame retardants are very persistent in the environment and able to accumulate along the food chain. Many authors highlight their presence in the environment, in many animal species and in the human serum. Worryingly, man is exposed as soon as the pregnancy and then by the breastfeeding. This exposition may have consequence on our health. Many studies (in vitro, in vivo or epidemiologic) highlight brominated flame retardant negative effects on the endocrine system, mainly on the thyroid function but also on the reproduction, the neurodevelopment in the children and on the metabolism with increasing diabetes risk. If authorities and some big enterprises are aware about the problematic, new studies are needed to confirm previous results, elucidate endocrine disrupting mechanisms and highlight hypothetical synergies with other pollutants such like PCBs.

Keywords: brominated flame retardants; contamination; endocrine disruptors; persistency; thyroid function.