STUDY FINDS TOXIC FLAME RETARDANTS ARE SIGNIFICANT SOURCE OF POLLUTION TO WATERWAYS

Seattle –Scientists have been puzzling over why toxic flame retardant chemicals used in products in our homes, like couches and TVs, are showing up in Puget Sound, rivers, and other waters across the state. Now they have an answer thanks to a new peer-reviewed study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The first-of-its kind study uncovers how flame-retardants used in products in homes accumulate on clothing, contaminate laundry wastewater, and pass through wastewater treatment plants to pollute rivers and other waters. The study is available at http://www.watoxics.org/homestowaters.

“Toxic flame retardants are hitchhiking on our clothes and literally coming out in the wash,” said Erika Schreder, the study’s lead author and science director with the Washington Toxics Coalition. “This study demonstrates for the first time a key way that toxic flame retardants found in our homes are transported to outdoor environments.”

Researchers have known for years that chemical flame retardants escape from couches and other products and collect in house dust. Flame-retardants have also been previously detected in surface water, sediment, fish, bird eggs, and other wildlife. The new study has now identified the link between the indoor chemicals and the outdoor pollution: home laundry wash water.

Mark J. La Guardia, co-author and senior environmental research scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said “Our analysis suggests that from the home laundry wastewater is the primary source of flame retardants to treatment plants, and some of them are going right through the plant to the river.”

Scientists tested dust and home laundry rinse water from 20 Longview and Vancouver, WA homes for 22 chemical flame-retardants. Samples were also taken from two wastewater treatment plants, both of influent and effluent, and analyzed for the same group of flame-retardants. These treatment plants discharge to the Columbia River.

Scientists found high levels of flame-retardants in the dust, laundry water and water treatment plant influent and effluent. This shows flame retardant-contaminated dust is attaching to clothing and washing out in the laundry, making its way to rivers and Puget Sound through wastewater treatment plants. The study found some of these chemicals are not removed during treatment, and are then discharged directly to waterways – hundreds of pounds per year from a single treatment plant.

The study’s findings include:

• 21 flame-retardants were detected in household dust, 16 of those in 95% or more of homes sampled. These included PBDEs as well as a number of chemicals that have come into greater use as replacements for the phased-out PBDEs.
• 18 flame-retardants were detected in laundry water.
• Chlorinated organophosphate (Tris) flame-retardants, used in furniture foam and home insulation, were discharged in the highest concentrations of any flame retardant from wastewater treatment facilities to the Columbia River. The Tris flame-retardants detected include TCPP, TDCPP, and TCEP.
• Based on levels measured in treatment plant effluent, the study estimates a yearly discharge of 174 kilograms, or 384 pounds, of the three Tris flame retardants to the Columbia River—from just one treatment plant. That is the equivalent of the flame retardant used to treat 1088 couches.
• Laundry wastewater is a significant source of chlorinated Tris flame-retardants to waterways, wildlife and fish. Tris flame-retardants are not removed or broken down during the treatment process, but instead are discharged into waterways.
• The study estimates that between one and four percent of the annual production of Tris flame-retardants is not staying in consumer products but is leaching out and polluting waterways—a total of more than one million pounds ending up in waterways nationally each year.
• Chlorinated organophosphate (Tris) flame retardants make up on average 72% of flame retardants found in house dust and 92% of flame retardants found in laundry wastewater. Some flame-retardants in this group are considered known human carcinogens. There is also evidence of harm to reproduction and the nervous system.

Flame-retardants, including chlorinated organophosphates (Tris) as well as the now-banned PBDEs, have been detected in surface water, sediment, fish, bird eggs, and other wildlife. PBDEs have been found in animals relying on the Columbia: ospreys, largescale suckers, and salmon. Laboratory and field studies have linked exposure of fish to PBDEs, the most well-studied flame retardants, to hormone disruption, inhibited spawning, and weakened immune response. In a study of 19 U.S. drinking water systems, two of these compounds, TCPP and TCEP, were found in drinking water at the highest median level of all 51 compounds tested.

"If toxic flame retardants are polluting waters in Washington State, they are likely doing the same right here in Connecticut and that is really disturbing. This study is another reason why we’ll continue to work to reduce exposure to these harmful chemicals,” said Anne Hulick, RN, MS, JD, Coordinator of the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy CT. "Toxic flame retardant pollution is preventable pollution. In the absence of meaningful federal action, state legislators need to ban these chemicals and ensure they aren't replaced by equally harmful chemicals," said Sarah Doll, national director with SAFER.

Safer States (The State Alliance for Federal Reform (SAFER) of Chemical Policy) is a coalition of state-based organizations championing solutions to protect public health and communities from toxic chemicals. www.saferstates.org, www.facebook.com/saferstates or @SaferStates