Paint this news black. The black plastic items that you find like everywhere may contain toxic brominated flame retardants, otherwise known as BFRs. And these BFRs are not your BFFs as they’ve been linked to cancer, nervous system problems, endocrine disruption and reproductive and development issues. When researchers screened 203 black plastic consumer products for bromine, they found BFRs in 85% of these products, as described in study published on October 1 in the scientific journal Chemosphere.
In fact, the total concentrations of such flame retardants detected ranged all the way up to 22,800 mg per kilogram, as described by the study authors Megan Liu and Erika Schreder from a Toxic-Free-Future and Sicco H. Brandsma from the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The highest levels appeared in a sushi tray, spatula, and a beaded necklace. The study even found the already banned substance deca-BDE in plastic products at levels that were five-fold to 1,200-fold higher than the European Union’s limit of 10 ppm.
And many of these black plastic items will end up either going into your mouth or touching things like hot dogs and fruitcakes that will go into your mouth. For example, they estimated that the use of black kitchen utensils could lead to an exposure of 34,700 ng of BFRs per day.
Black kitchen utensils certainly aren’t the only things potential cooking with BFRs. Take a look around you and it may seem like your whole world is black. There’s black plastic takeout containers, toys, clothing and hair accessories, office supplies, electronic cases and on and on. Heck, maybe the computer or smartphone that you are using has a black casing with such flame retardants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes BFRs as “the largest marketed flame retardant group due to their high performance efficiency and low cost. In the commercial market, more than 75 different BFRs are recognized.”
Manufacturers put flame retardants in plastic presumably to prevent it and you from going up in flames. That wouldn’t be good for you health. But neither would cryptorchidism, perturbations in thyroid hormone, reproductive issues and developmental issues in children, which epidemiological studies have shown to be associated with BFR exposure. And rats, a number of rodent studies have shown how various BFRs can affect nervous system growth and function and serve as endocrine disruptors, which in turn can affect reproductive development and function. Studies have also found associations between BFR exposure and the development of breast cancer and endocrine-related cancers.
How do you get exposed to such BFRs? Well, direct contact with your mouth could expose you like sucking on a black plastic spatula with BFRs. The EPA also mentioned “hand to mouth activity.” Now, you may interpret that phrase in many different ways, but in this case it means touching something with BFRs and then having your hand touch your mouth. Another route is BFRs potentially leaching from containers into foods, where they can stay, especially if the food has a higher fat content. But if you are surrounded by items with BFRs, then your house and workplace could essentially be a bromance in a bad way. Brominated retardant chemicals could be pervasive and readily find many different ways into your body.
Before you begin buying plastic in other colors such as orange, thinking it’s safe as the new black, keep in mind that the study only looked at black plastic items. It did not examine other colors of plastics and therefore can’t rule out the possibility that other colors have just as much BFRs in them.
