Dust from UK primary school classrooms and daycare centres: its significance as a pathway of exposure to young children to perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs)

Recent research has highlighted the potential significance of indoor dust ingestion as a pathway of exposure to both PFCs and BFRs. In particular, it has been identified as a pathway of concern for young children. However, relatively little is known about the presence of such chemicals in dust from classrooms in child daycare centres and primary schools. This paper reports concentrations of selected PFCs and BFRs in samples of dust (n=43) from such microenvironments in the UK West Midlands conurbation. Concentrations in classrooms are generally in line with those in other UK microenvironments; although concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in UK classrooms exceed those reported in Swedish child daycare centres. Reassuringly, exposure of young children via dust ingestion to PFOS and PFOA falls comfortably below even the most stringent exposure guideline value for these compounds. However, when the data from this study are combined with data on concentrations in dust from UK homes and cars under a high-end exposure scenario, young children are exposed to BDE-99 and BDE-209 at levels that exceed a recent health-based limit value for BDE-99 derived by Netherlands researchers and the USEPA’s reference dose (RfD) for BDE-209.