Abstract
Despite extensive application in consumer products and concerns over their adverse health effects, how external
exposure to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) contributes to their human body burdens is not yet fully understood.
While recent studies focused on inadvertent indoor dust ingestion and diet as potential major pathways of exposure,
dermal uptake has been largely overlooked. We provide the first experimentally-based assessment of dermal uptake
of BFRs via contact with indoor dust and flame-retarded furniture fabrics. Results reveal substantial uptake from
furniture fabrics (e.g. 8.1 ng pentaBDE/kg bw/day for adults in summer), exceeding the overall adult intake of
pentaBDE estimated previously via other exposure pathways. For HBCDs, despite the low absorption fraction (<2.5%)
from the studied fabrics, the estimated dermal uptake of UK adults and toddlers (101 and 76.9 ng/kg bw/day) exceed
the reported average daily intakes of 7.9 and 43.0 ng/kg bw/day for these UK age groups. Conversely, uptake from
dust was low (0.05 and 0.19 ng pentaBDE/kg bw/day for adults and toddlers, respectively), indicating previous
pharmacokinetic approaches have overestimated significance of this route. Future exposure and risk assessment
studies should consider dermal contact with treated products as a significant pathway of human exposure to BFRs and
related chemicals.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 26-33 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Environment International |
Volume | 118 |
Early online date | 26 May 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2018 |
Keywords
- dermal uptake
- human exposure
- BFRs
- indoor dust
- fabrics