From Science News.
"New research suggests that the PBDEs used as flame retardants in
consumer goods such as couches are escaping from the products they are
used to protect and attaching themselves to people's clothes. Children
are at particularly high risk of taking up the chemicals, which are
suspected to be endocrine disrupters, from PBDEs in house dust.
"By using EPA estimates of how much dust a toddler between the ages of 1
and 4 can be expected to take up, Stapleton and her colleagues
determined that children in homes with high levels of PBDEs could be
ingesting as much 1180 ng of PBDEs from dust each day. She warns that
this is sufficiently close to the levels that cause behavioral effects
in laboratory animals to highlight the need for more data on indoor
exposure to PBDEs. This is particularly true for children, because
previous studies have revealed that nursing infants may already be
consuming a high dose. PBDEs are slated for evaluation by the Children's
Environmental Exposure Research Study program, which is currently
undergoing additional peer review (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005, 39,
40A).