Discontinued Flame Retardant Detected in Baby Products and Dust
Environmental Science and Technology
Kellyn Betts
August 18, 2009
Tom Webster, the associate chair of the Boston University School of Public Health’s environmental health department, has been investigating the public-health implications of flame retardant use for more than five years. Because of a paper recently published in ES&T (2009, DOI 10.1021/es9014019), Webster can for the first time answer “yes” when people ask him whether the flame retardants he studies are the same ones previously used in children’s pajamas. But he isn’t happy about it.
The new paper documents the presence of tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP or TDCP) in the foam padding of products intended for use by children, as well as in dust from U.S. homes. Heather Stapleton, an assistant environmental chemistry professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, is the paper’s corresponding author, and Webster is a coauthor. They say that they are concerned about both findings because a 1978 Science paper reported TDCPP to be weakly mutagenic; by the early 1980s, the flame retardant had ceased to be used in children’s pajamas. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission classifies TDCPP as a probable human carcinogen, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers it a moderate cancer hazard, according to their paper.