A Review of Recent Studies on Brominated Flame Retardants in the Asia-Pacific Region

Introduction Recently, environmental issues relating to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) have become a matter of great concern due to their persistent and bioaccumulative properties and potential toxic risk to humans. Growth in interest on PBDEs has been exponential as their apparent increase in the environment over the last few decades in Europe and North America. However, there is still little information on contamination of BFRs in the Asia-Pacific region (Watanabe and Sakai, 2003). Significant contamination by BFRs may arise from rapid industrialization in some Asian countries. Therefore, we have started monitoring studies on the contamination status of BFRs as well as legacy POPs in the Asia-Pacific region. In this presentation, we review our recent studies on BFRs including PBDEs and HBCDs in mussels, skipjack tunas, marine mammals, human breast milk, house and office dusts, sediment cores and terrestrial environments such as waste dumping sites to delineate their present status of contamination, global distribution, human exposure, potential sources and temporal trends.