Are Households Being Contaminated by Consumer Electronics?
Scientists have recently found a chemical in homes that hadn’t been detected previously (Pelley, 2014). Chemicals from various products — including electronics, clothing, cleaners, and more — don’t always stay in just those products; they can enter the air and be transmitted when we touch items. Dust is the main way that we are exposed in a household to chemicals like flame retardants that are used in consumer products.
The chemical that was found is a new type of brominated flame retardant in homes. The manufacture of brominated flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) was banned in the US and Europe between 2002 and 2008, and this is the first such chemical found since 2008. The detection of this chemical suggests that manufacturers are using this chemical as a replacement for chemicals that were phased out due to the ban.
What this means is that even if some potentially harmful chemicals are successfully banned and phased out of the manufacturing process, the chemicals we find to replace them may not be any better. In fact, they can be more dangerous than the original chemicals. Continued testing and vigilance is necessary to try to ensure that we are not encountering harmful chemicals. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by many and many kinds of chemicals as a result of living in a modern society, so it seems unlikely that we will ever be able to completely eliminate exposure to harmful chemicals. Still, we can try to have reduced exposure and find safe alternatives. When the alternatives we’ve found prove themselves to be unsafe, we can look for other alternatives.
We should never become complacent that what is in our environment and household is safe just because we were able to purchase it. Manufacturers aren’t always honest, and continued testing can turn up information that we didn’t know earlier, showing that items previously considered safe are not as safe as we would like.
Sources and Further Reading:
- Ballesteros-Gomez, Ana et al. “A Novel Brominated Triazine-based Flame Retardant (TTBP-TAZ) in Plastic Consumer Products and Indoor Dust.” Environmental Science & Technology. 25 March 2014. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es4057032?source=cen Accessed 12 April 2014.
- Pelley, Janet. “Scientists Uncover New Brominated Flame Retardant in Consumer Electronics.” Chemical & Engineering News. 4 April 2014. http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/04/Scientists-Uncover-New-Brominated-Flame.html Accessed 12 April 2014.
