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Polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs)
PBDEs Project Plan
and Status Report
December 22, 2008, EPA released its third status report updating information on its PBDEs activities (PDF) (14 pp, 84K, About PDF). The status report represents the follow-up to EPA's March 2006 Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) Project Plan (PDF) (40 pp, 305K, About PDF), which outlines EPA's activities regarding PBDEs. Its four major objectives are to:
- Assess substitutes for pentabromodiphenyl ether (pentaBDE) and octabromodiphenyl ether (octaBDE)
- Assess and evaluate decabromodiphenyl ether
- Assess risks of pentabromodiphenyl ether and octabromodiphenyl ether
- Track developments concerning other brominated flame retardants of interest
Flame retardants used in plastics, foams, fabrics and other materials are important for safety. Polybrominated diphenylethers, or PBDEs, are a particular class of flame retardant chemicals. EPA is working with industry, environmental and public health groups, other federal agencies, state governments, and other national governments to research and understand potential health risks posed by PBDEs. In 2006 EPA released a project plan describing how it will address key questions and provide a basis for informed risk reduction decisions, including potential regulatory and voluntary actions, and is issuing status updates about progress on the plan.
- What are PBDEs?
- What are PBDEs used for?
- What are concerns associated with PBDEs?
- What is the Agency doing under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) relating to PBDEs?
- What is the Agency doing to better understand the possible risks from PBDEs?
What are PBDEs?
Polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) are members of a broader class of brominated chemicals used as flame retardants; these are called brominated flame retardants, or BFRs. There are dozens of congeners, or varieties of the basic chemical type, of PBDEs.
What are PBDEs used for?
These chemicals are major components of commercial formulations often used as flame retardants in furniture foam (pentaBDE), plastics for TV cabinets, consumer electronics, wire insulation, back coatings for draperies and upholstery (decaBDE), and plastics for personal computers and small appliances (octaBDE). The benefit of these chemicals is their ability to slow ignition and rate of fire growth, and as a result increase available escape time in the event of a fire.
What are concerns associated with PBDEs?
Although use of flame retardants saves lives and property, there have been unintended consequences. There is growing evidence that PBDEs persist in the environment and accumulate in living organisms, as well as toxicological testing that indicates these chemicals may cause liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity. Environmental monitoring programs in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Arctic have found traces of several PBDEs in human breast milk, fish, aquatic birds, and elsewhere in the environment. Particular congeners, tetra- to hexabrominated diphenyl ethers, are the forms most frequently detected in wildlife and humans. The mechanisms or pathways through which PBDEs get into the environment and humans are not known yet, but could include releases from manufacturing or processing of the chemicals into products like plastics or textiles, aging and wear of the end consumer products, and direct exposure during use (e.g., from furniture).
What is the Agency doing under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) relating to PBDEs?
EPA promulgated a Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) [Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) (PDF, 7pp., 130K, About PDF)] in the Federal Register to require notification to EPA ninety days prior to US manufacture or import, for any use, of the commercial products pentaBDE and octaBDE after January 1, 2005. This action is a follow-up to a voluntary phase-out of these chemicals by Great Lakes Chemical Corporation (now Chemtura Corporation), the only U.S. manufacturer of pentaBDE and octaBDE. Production in the United States of these two chemicals ceased at the end of 2004. A question and answer document on the PBDE SNUR is also available.
What is the Agency doing to better understand the possible risks from PBDEs?
EPA is engaged in the Voluntary Children’s Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP), working with chemical manufacturers to provide data to enable the public to understand the potential health risks to children associated with certain chemical exposures. Through VCCEP, industry-sponsored risk assessments for pentaBDE, octaBDE and decaBDE were developed to evaluate the potential risks to children and prospective parents from potential exposure scenarios. In September, 2005, EPA released its Data Needs Decision documents on PBDEs. EPA has requested manufacturers to provide the needed data by volunteering to conduct fate and transport tests with decaBDE and 2-generation reproductive toxicity tests with pentaBDE and octaBDE.
Directly or through grant mechanisms, EPA has been supporting research aimed at a range of topics related to PBDEs, including measuring PBDE levels in umbilical cord blood from newborn U.S. infants, mothers’ blood, house dust, food, breast milk, and children; potential thyroid toxicity and developmental neurotoxicity; and the environmental fate of the PBDEs upon their release during production or after disposal of products that contain these chemicals.
