Denzel Washington's hometown hosts awarding of scholarships bearing Washington family name

...sorder called aphasia. More recently, she has studied the possible neurotoxic effects of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), particularly PBDE-47. pbdes are man-made chemicals used as flame retardants in a variety of consumer products. Excited about conducting research in the neurosciences, but unsu...

American Chemical Society's Weekly Presspac -- Sept. 5, 2007

... results of our study on PCBs may paint an ominous picture for risks associated with emerging chemicals, as the concentrations of structurally-related pbdes are doubling every 4 years in marine mammals, researchers added. ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) Face Protracted H...

How to Keep Away from Dust Allergy?

...n Agency of the USA reveals. It is not yet clear how dangerous these pbdes are, though some types are banned in most parts of Europe. Their structure ...ent like capacitors and transformers. Here are some tips to avoid the pbdes while cleaning up. People are advised to vacuum and dust regularly and use ...

Obesity And Environmental Chemicals: Research Probes Potential Link

...me into contact with up to 100 products containing pbdes per day. While chemical manufacturers say pbdes can reduce by 45 percent the risk of death and inj...cumented. Their persistence in the environment has pbdes compared to now-banned toxins like PCBs and DDT; t...

Bacteria Can Convert Flame Retardant Into Toxic Form

...urrent and planned bans of the most toxic forms of pbdes may be ineffectual if the less toxic forms are ren...ling penta-BDEs and octa-BDEs, two potent forms of pbdes linked to health problems in animals. Deca-BDE, th...ra-BDEs. "Now that we understand that certain pbdes found in the environment can be transformed into m...

PBDEs in Biological News

Microbes transform 'safest' PBDEs into more harmful compounds

Bacteria in the soil can transform the most commonly used flame retardant compound in the United States into more toxic forms that could be harmful to humans, according to a new laboratory study published today on the Web site of the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & T...

Skip this cocktail party

...e study also quantifies concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or pbdes (a particular class of flame retardants), which are neurotoxicants that imp...ctivity and cognition. This work is the first to quantify concentrations of pbdes in the brains of marine mammals. The results revealed that concentration...

NOAA report calls flame retardants concern to US coastal ecosystems

...sis of samples as far back as 1996 that identified pbdes in only a limited number of sites around the natio...s posed to aquatic resources and human health." pbdes are man-made toxic chemicals used as flame retarda...dy of research points to evidence that exposure to pbdes may produce detrimental health effects in animals,...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac

...evels of potentially toxic flame retardants called pbdes at levels nearly twice the national average, scien...n the new study, Ami Zota and colleagues note that pbdes (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are widely used a...umans are unclear, studies in animals suggest that pbdes may cause thyroid, developmental, and reproductive...

6 environmental research studies reveal critical health risks from plastic

...lastic), and interfere with thyroid hormone (brominated flame retardants or pbdes used in many types of plastic). Two articles report very similar change...tal exposure to phthalates. Two articles show that fetal exposure to BPA or pbdes disrupts normal development of the brain and behavior in rats and mice. Two...

Environmental pollutant has sex-skewing effect

...ed lakes or who live near former manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, other chemicals with a similar structure to PCBs, such as the flame-retardants pbdes (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), are currently widely used in plastic casings and foam products. According to the authors, "PBDEs share many of the b...

NOAA reports coastal waters show decline in contaminants

... spill in San Francisco Bay showed concentrations at the monitoring site near the spill were the highest ever recorded. Flame retardants known as pbdes are a new class of contaminants currently being evaluated by NOAA to determine whether they are increasing in coastal waters and what effects they may...

Chemicals used as fire retardants could be harmful, UC-Riverside researchers say

...ave done research using rat tissue that shows that pbdes disrupt mechanisms that are responsible for releas... manufacture in the U.S. was discontinued in 1977, pbdes alter calcium signaling in the brain a critical m...of hormones in the body. Long-term exposures to pbdes may pose a human health risk, especially to infant...

SRMs track fire retardants in humans and environment

...property damage. After several decades of use, pbdes are widely distributed in the environment as conta...st milk). To help scientists evaluate the risks of pbdes by improving measurements of these pollutants in t...n Agency (EPA) cites animal tests as evidence that pbdes are neurodevelopmental toxins, disruptors of thyro...

Study links cat disease to flame retardants in furniture and to pet food

...accounted for almost half of the global demand for pbdes from commercial materials like furniture or uphols...s began almost 30 years ago, at the same time when pbdes were introduced into household materials as a fire... able to serve as sentinels for indoor exposure to pbdes for humans who share their houses, said Linda S. B...