Temporal Trends of Current-Use Brominated Flame Retardants and Dechlorane Plus in the Eggs of Colonial Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) From the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America

Introduction. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are currently the most widely studied class of additive brominated flame retardants (BFRs) that have been shown to bioaccumulate in wildlife and humans (Hites 2004). There are an increasing number of reports on PBDEs in top predator avian species (Norstrom et al. 2002; Verreault et al. 2005; McKinney et al. 2006). Specifically, the North American Great Lakes herring gulls (Larus argentatus), which have shown tetraand penta-BDE congeners to be increasing exponentially between 1981 and 2000 (Norstrom et al. 2002).