Legacy and alternative flame retardants in Norwegian and UK indoor environment: Implications of human exposure via dust ingestion

Abstract

Indoor dust has been acknowledged as a major source of flame retardants (FRs) and dust ingestion is considered a major route of exposure for humans. In the present study, we investigated the presence of PBDEs and alternative FRs such as emerging halogenated FRs (EHFRs) and organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) in indoor dust samples from British and Norwegian houses as well as British stores and offices. BDE209 was the most abundant PBDE congener with median concentrations of 4700ngg−1 and 3400ngg−1 in UK occupational and house dust, respectively, 30 and 20 fold higher than in Norwegian house dust. Monomeric PFRs (m-PFRs), including triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), tris(chloropropyl) phosphate (TCPP) and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) dominated all the studied environments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of isodecyldiphenyl phosphate (iDPP) and trixylenyl phosphate (TXP) in indoor environments. iDPP was the most abundant oligomeric PFR (o-PFR) in all dust samples, with median concentrations one order of magnitude higher than TXP and bisphenol A bis(diphenyl phosphate (BDP). iDPP and TXP worst-case scenario exposures for British workers during an 8h exposure in the occupational environment were equal to 34 and 1.4ngkgbw−1day−1, respectively. The worst-case scenario for BDE209 estimated exposure for British toddlers (820ngkgbw−1day−1) did not exceeded the proposed reference dose (RfD) (7000ngkgbw−1day−1), while exposures for sum of m-PFRs (Σm-PFRs) in British toddlers and adults (17,900 and 785ngkgbw−1day−1 respectively) were an order of magnitude higher than for Norwegian toddlers and adults (1600 and 70ngkgbw−1day−1).