Flame Retardants in Indoor Air at an Electronics Recycling Plant and at Other Work Environments

Abstract

Air samples from a plant engaged in recycling electronics goods, a factory assembling printed circuit boards, a computer repair facility, offices equipped with computers, and outdoor air have been analyzed with respect to their content of brominated hydrocarbon and phosphate ester flame retardants. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polybrominated biphenyls, 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-ethane, tetrabromobisphenol A, and organophosphate esters were all detected in the indoor air samples, with the highest concentrations being detected in air from the recycling plant. In air from the dismantling hall at the recycling plant the average concentrations of decabromodiphenyl ether, tetrabromobisphenol A, and triphenyl phosphate were 38, 55, and 58 pmol/m3, respectively. Significantly higher levels of all of these additives were present in air in the vicinity of the shredder at the dismantling plant. This is the first time that 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-ethane and several arylated phosphate esters are reported to be contaminants of air in occupational settings. At all of the other sites investigated, low levels of flame retardants were detected in the indoor air. Flame retardants associated with airborne particles, present at elevated levels, pose a potential health hazard to the exposed workers.

On-site and off-site atmospheric PBDEs in an electronic dismantling workshop in south China: Gas-particle partitioning and human exposure assessment

“…These values are 2.4e3.3 times higher than those during off work time in the workshops, 3.6e4.4 times higher than the third-grade standard of GB3095-1996, and 12e15 times higher than samples taken during work time on the roof of a three-storey building located near the region . The values are only slightly lower than those in a dismantling hall (3.3 mg/m 3 ) in an e-waste recycling plant in Sweden (Sjodin et al, 2001). However, all of these results are far below the maximum allowed occupational level in Sweden, which is 10 mg/m 3 for total particles.…”

“…3, Table S2). BDE-209 was the dominant congener and was still higher than those (Julander et al, 2005;Pettersson-Julander et al, 2004;Sjodin et al, 2001) ranging from 12 to 70 ng/m 3 at the dismantling hall, 150 to 200 ng/m 3 near the shredder (Sjodin et al, 2001), and 157.6 to 208.6 ng/m 3 in dust (Julander et al, 2005).…”

Levels and distributions of organophosphate flame retardants and plasticizers in sediment from Taihu Lake, China

“…In the present work, the concentrations of S7OPs from different regions exhibited no significant differences ( p > 0.05) between districts based on statistical analysis using SPSS 18.0. The results might imply that a diffusive source, such as dry and wet deposition, also plays a role in the extensive distribution of OPs in the lake sediment [39][40][41].…”

E-waste recycling induced polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzo-furans pollution in the ambient environment

“…All these have led to the high level of pollution in the ambient environment, and further to threaten the ecosystem local and inhabitants' health (Wong et al, 2007;Yu et al, 2006;Deng et al, 2006;Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 1999). Approximately 10 folds higher levels of airborne PBDEs were monitored compared with the controls (Sjödin et al, 2001) and much higher levels of PBDEs in serum of workers in E-waste recycling factories might sound the alarm for the potential threaten posed by such vocation (Sjödin et al, 1999).…”