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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#000099'><a href="http://cen.acs.org/articles/89/web/2011/12/New-Flame-Retardant-Levels-Rising.html">http://cen.acs.org/articles/89/web/2011/12/New-Flame-Retardant-Levels-Rising.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#000099'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:4.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt'><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#B11C1C'>December 7, 2011 </span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666'>|</span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#B11C1C'> Latest News<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-right:4.5pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:4.5pt'><b><span style='font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'>New Flame Retardant Levels Rising Rapidly<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:4.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Air Pollution: Air concentrations of the brominated chemicals doubled every 13 months in recent years in Cleveland and Chicago<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:4.5pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:4.5pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>By </span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#007AAD'><a href="http://cen.acs.org/static/about/staff_landing.html" title="Staff C&EN | Chemical & Engineering News"><b><span style='color:#007AAD;text-decoration:none'>Sara Peach</span></b></a></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557;display:none'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'><img border=0 width=250 height=85 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.gif@01CCB666.B4C39DE0" alt=20111207lnj1-flameretardants></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'>Flame Out <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'>The new flame retardants TBB and TBPH have started replacing polybrominated diphenylethers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#063557'>Credit: Environ. Sci. Technol.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Created to replace older chemicals thought to pose an environmental threat, <a href="http://cgi.cen.acs.org/cgi-bin/cen/trustedproxy.cgi?redirect=http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es203251f" title="new flame retardants have become widespread"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>new flame retardants have become widespread</span></a> in the air near the Great Lakes, according to a new report (<i>Environ. Sci. Technol.</i>, DOI: <a href="http://cgi.cen.acs.org/cgi-bin/cen/trustedproxy.cgi?redirect=http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es203251f" title="10.1021/es203251f"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>10.1021/es203251f</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Since the 1970s, manufacturers have used retardants to reduce fire risk in consumer products such as upholstered furniture, electronics, and clothing. Commonly used flame retardants called polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) volatilize from those products and escape into the environment, where they may pose health and environmental hazards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>In 2004, the flame-retardant industry began replacing PBDEs with new formulations including <a href="http://www.chemtura.com/bu/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d239695a71ea6110VgnVCM10000053d7010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=df5e8d843400c110VgnVCM10000053d7010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default" title="Firemaster 550"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Firemaster 550</span></a> and <a href="http://www.chemtura.com/bu/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ca19695a71ea6110VgnVCM10000053d7010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=df5e8d843400c110VgnVCM10000053d7010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default" title="Firemaster BZ-54"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Firemaster BZ-54</span></a>, which contain 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (TBB) and bis(2-ethylhexyl)-tetrabromophthalate (TBPH). But these chemicals could also have environmental risks: Research has suggested that the compounds can build up in fish and damage their DNA.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>So <a href="http://hites.chem.indiana.edu/" title="Ronald A. Hites"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ronald A. Hites</span></a> of <a href="http://www.iub.edu/" title="Indiana University, Bloomington"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Indiana University, Bloomington</span></a>, and his colleagues wanted to know if TBB and TBPH had started to accumulate in the environment. The researchers analyzed 507 air samples collected by the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/monitoring/air2/index.html" title="Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network</span></a>, a U.S.-Canada program that monitors air quality in the Great Lakes region. Hites and his team used gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to measure levels of the two chemicals in samples collected between 2008 and 2010. They detected TBB and TBPH in the vast majority of samples from Chicago and Cleveland, where levels of the compounds doubled approximately every 13 months. They also found the compounds in about half of air samples from four rural sites. At those sites, levels doubled every 19 months.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The flame retardants even reached remote Eagle Harbor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which suggests to Hites that winds transport the chemicals over hundreds of miles. He points out that scientists don’t know much about these chemicals’ environmental fate. They may degrade naturally in the environment, he says, but they also may not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Chemical & Engineering News <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>ISSN 0009-2347 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:11.25pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Copyright © 2011American Chemical Society <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#000099'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Deborah L. DeBiasi</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Email: Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></b><b><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:red'><br></span></i></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>WEB site address: <a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/">www.deq.virginia.gov</a></span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Virginia Department of Environmental Quality</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Office of Water Permit and Compliance Assistance Programs</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'> <br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/vpdes/microconstituents.html">www.deq.virginia.gov/vpdes/microconstituents.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219</span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'><br></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:navy'>PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#000099'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>