Harmful flame retardant chemicals found in women's breast milk and breasts

University of Wisconsin scientists found PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, insediment hundreds of feet down in Lake Michigan. Fish and other animals absorb the chemicals and pollutants through the environment, storing them in fat that people then eat. Studies in rats and mice suggest high levels of the chemicals can cause liver and thyroid damage.

How the PBDEs and other chemicals got into Lake Michigan is still not entirely clear, but the air appears the most likely way. PBDEs are added to plastics used in computers, televisions, furniture and carpets. Some computer-makers stopped using PBDEs in 2002, but flame retardant related to PBDEs is still used in some circuit boards.

Starting in 2008, California will become the first state to ban two forms of the PBDEs because they accumulate in the blood of mothers and nursing babies. The ban was approved last year but delayed to give manufacturers time to find alternatives.

California researchers found that women in the San Francisco Bay area have three to 10 times greater amounts in their breast tissue than either European or Japanese women, while Indiana researchers found levels in Indiana and California women and infants 20 times higher than in Sweden and Norway.

The flame-retardant chemicals persist in the environment for years. If you feel you may have been a victim of PBDEs, please contact us immediately for possible environmental litigation.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Potentially harmful chemical increasing in Lake Michigan 11/26/04