High Levels of Toxic Flame Retardants Found in Toys, Kitchen Utensils Made From Black Plastic
Some common household products made from black-colored plastic — including toys, take-out food containers and kitchen utensils — contain high levels of toxic flame retardants, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Chemosphere.
The contamination stems from the improper recycling of electronic products like televisions, whose casings are made from black plastic. When plastic casings containing flame retardants are mixed with other plastics during recycling, the contaminants make their way into the end product.
Toxic-Free Future and the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment conducted the study.
Megan Liu, science and policy manager for Toxic-Free Future, told The Defender:
“These flame retardants are hazardous because they are associated with a range of negative health effects, including carcinogenicity, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and reproductive harm.
“The findings of flame retardants in children’s toys are of particular concern, because flame retardants have been found to leach from toys into children’s saliva.”
The researchers examined 203 products manufactured from black-colored plastics. They screened the products for bromine, a man-made chemical used in flame retardants.
Products containing 50 parts per million of bromine were further analyzed for the presence of brominated flame retardants, organophosphate flame retardants and plastic polymers.
The results showed that toxic flame retardants were present in 85% of the products analyzed, with concentrations reaching 22,800 milligrams per kilogram The contaminants detected included decabromodiphenyl ether, or decaBDE, a compound commonly used in the casings of electronics before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned it in 2021.
One compound, decabromodiphenyl ether, or BDE-209, was commonly found in black-colored plastic kitchen utensils at an average level of 34,700 nanograms per day, “exceeding estimates for intake from dust and diet.”
A 2014 study published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics found that BDE-209 has highly carcinogenic effects on humans.
Other contaminants detected include compound 2,4,6-tribromophenol, which has been detected in human breast milk, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Environmental Pollution.
According to a study published by JAMA Network Open in April, people with high concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDE, a common flame retardant, are approximately 300% more likely to die from cancer compared to people with the lowest levels. DecaBDE belongs to this category of flame retardants.
Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor of pediatrics and population health at NYU Langone Health, told CNN that brominated flame retardants are of particular concern due to high levels of toxic contaminants that can remain in the human body for years.
“I’m not aware of any safe level of brominated flame retardants,” Trasande said. Earlier this year, Trasande co-authored a study, published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, finding that such contaminants cost the U.S. healthcare system up to $249 billion in 2018 alone.
‘Mistakes in the recycling of electronic waste’ are behind widespread contamination
According to the Toxic-Free Future study, the presence of toxic flame retardants in a wide range of household and commercial products “indicates that recycling, without the necessary transparency and restrictions to ensure safety, is resulting in unexpected exposure to toxic flame retardants in household items.”
“Flame retardants are a highly hazardous class of chemicals, but they are still allowed for use in products like electronics, and as a result of dirty electronic-waste recycling, we’re seeing flame retardants appear in unexpected products, like our kitchen utensils, food service ware, and hair accessories,” Liu said.
Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., president of the National Center for Health Research, told The Defender that the findings of this study are “worrying” and reflect the need for better regulation of plastic recycling and toxins in plastics.
Zuckerman said:
“It’s become increasingly obvious that the public has been misled about the effectiveness and safety of recycling plastics and it is no longer possible to trust the information that we’ve been given, most of which comes from industry.
“For that reason, the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and EPA need to scrutinize the safety of all plastic products used with foods, instead of the vague reassurances the agencies have been offering.”
According to Liu, the study focused on black-colored plastic “because we hypothesized that the black plastic used for television casings and electronic enclosures, which flame retardants are intentionally added to, were being recycled into non-electronic, household products.”
The study noted that the styrene-based plastics typically used in the casings of electronics contained “significantly higher levels” of toxic flame retardants, compared to plastics like polypropylene and nylon, which are less frequently used for such casings.
“It appears the plastics used to make the consumer products were contaminated with flame retardants due to mistakes in the recycling of electronic waste,” Liu told CNN.
The study focused on items such as kitchen utensils and toys “because of high-risk exposure concerns” and frequent use by children, Liu said:
“Kitchen utensils are things we use on a regular, maybe even daily basis, and studies have shown that flame retardants can leach out of kitchen utensils into our food.
“Children also play with toys for extended periods of time, so it’s important to think about the compounded exposures we might be getting from these products, as well as other products that may contain flame retardants, when thinking about how this is affecting people, especially vulnerable populations like children.”
Liu separately told CNN that studies specifically testing food contact materials, such as black plastic kitchen utensils or take-out containers, hadn’t previously been conducted.
According to the study, lax regulation in the U.S. has helped contribute to the widespread contamination:
“A lack of transparency related to chemicals in products and limited restrictions on use of FRs [flame retardants] in electronics have led to widespread use and dissemination of harmful FRs.
“Despite the lack of transparency and restrictions, plastics from electronics are often recycled and can be incorporated in household items that do not require flame retardancy, resulting in potentially high and unnecessary exposure.”
For instance, Liu told CNN that decaBDE was found in 70% of the samples tested in the study, at levels up to 1,200 times higher than the European Union’s limit of 10 parts per million. The contamination persists despite the EPA’s ban on decaBDE in 2021.
According to CNN, decaBDE is linked to “cancer, endocrine and thyroid issues, fetal and child development and neurobehavioral function and reproductive and immune system toxicity.”
High levels of toxic flame retardants found in toys, sushi trays
Aside from their use in casings for electronics, flame retardants are also commonly used in furniture, car upholstery, infant car seats, carpet padding, foam-padded yoga mats and padded baby items, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
These flame retardants can “leach from products into the air and then attach to dust, food, and water, which can be ingested,” the institute noted.
But according to the study, toxic flame retardants can be found in many more items commonly found in homes — including children’s toys.
Liu told CNN, “A product with one of the highest levels of flame retardants were black plastic pirate coin beads that kids wear.” This product had up to 22,800 parts per million of total flame retardants, which Liu said was “almost 3% by weight.”
Another product identified as highly contaminated were black plastic sushi trays. Liu told CNN such items contain 11,900 parts per million of decaBDE.
Calls for stronger regulations against toxic contaminants in plastics
Liu told The Defender the latest findings demonstrate the need for stronger regulations on hazardous chemicals and materials entering the recycling stream. She said she is unaware of any such regulations in the U.S.
“What we need is our state and federal government, along with retailers, to ban these harmful chemicals and materials,” Liu said. “We need policy and market change to increase the transparency of what’s being used in the supply chain, including for recycled materials, as well as require the use of safer solutions.”
“Taking these steps and turning off the tap on toxic chemicals and plastics will help protect the health of women and children,” Liu said.
She noted that the study’s results were published “at a critical time when leaders around the world are negotiating a Global Plastics Treaty.”
The proposed treaty has a stated goal of ending “plastic pollution by 2040 through a circular economy where all plastics are responsibly managed during production, use, and end-of-life, enabling a climate-neutral plastics industry.”
The ongoing negotiations for this treaty come two years after the United Nations Environment Assembly passed a resolution, endorsed by 175 nation states, to end plastic pollution. The resolution calls for the completion of a legally binding international treaty by the end of 2024.
Such a treaty “will chart a course for how quickly and effectively the plastics crisis is addressed,” Liu said.
In the meantime, Liu suggested people “reduce any uses of plastics,” including replacing plastic kitchen utensils “with safer options, like wood or stainless steel.” Plastic containers should be replaced with glass containers.
“When possible, choosing plastic-free when purchasing any item can help reduce your overall exposure to harmful additives in plastic,” Liu said.
Regular cleaning and ventilating will also help “clear out any flame retardants accumulating in dust or air,” as will “frequent handwashing, regular wet-dusting and mopping, and vacuuming,” Liu added.
Zuckerman advised the public not to “microwave food in any kind of plastic,” adding that “we’ve been advising that for well more than a decade.”
“But the onus shouldn’t fall onto consumers,” Liu said. “We can’t shop our way out of this problem. We need policies that restrict the use of the most hazardous chemicals and plastics at the corporate and government level.”
Zuckerman said it’s “unrealistic to offer advice to individual consumers because the information we need is not currently available.”
“What we all need is independent research, scrutiny and oversight to take unsafe products off the market.”
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