Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in house dust in Singapore

Estimating exposures to indoor contaminants using residential dust

“…The estimated intake of PBDEs attributed to residential-dust exposure has varied widely within and between regions, but estimates from North America (Jones-Otazo et al, 2005;Stapleton et al, 2005;Wilford et al, 2005;Lorber, 2008;Harrad et al, 2008b;Johnson-Restrepo and Kannan, 2009;Wei et al, 2009) and Asia (Tan et al, 2007b;Wang et al, 2010) are generally higher than estimates from Europe (Fromme et al, 2009;Cunha et al, 2010;Dirtu and Covaci, 2010;D'Hollander et al, 2010;Harrad et al, 2006Harrad et al, , 2008bHarrad et al, , 2010bRoosens et al, 2009Roosens et al, , 2010b.…”

“…In fact, of 14 studies that inventoried the number of foamcontaining pieces of furniture, the number of electronic devices, and/or the typical use of electronic devices in study residences (Sharp and Lunder, 2004;Gevao et al, 2006;Suzuki et al, 2006;Karlsson et al, 2007;Wu et al, 2007;Tan et al, 2007b;Harrad et al, 2008a, b;Batterman et al, 2009;Imm et al, 2009;Roosens et al, 2009;Toms et al, 2009b;Cunha et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2010), only Suzuki et al (2006) reported significant associations between these covariates and PBDE levels in dust. These investigators reported significant correlations between total electrical appliance usage and dust concentrations of tetra-, Penta-, and hexa-BDE homolog groups across 19 households and 3 office buildings (Suzuki et al, 2006).…”

“…Two studies from China (Huang et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2010) and one from Singapore (Tan et al, 2007b) reported median BDE-209 concentrations of at least 1 mg/g in dust.…”

“…On the basis of these estimates, residential dust is expected to be the most important source of PBDE exposure for adults in geographical regions with relatively high PBDE dust levels (e.g., the United States and Asia). Moreover, children worldwide receive an even larger proportion of their total PBDE intake via dust ingestion compared with their adult counterparts (Jones-Otazo et al, 2005;Stapleton et al, 2005;Wilford et al, 2005;Tan et al, 2007b;Harrad et al, 2006Harrad et al, , 2008bJohnson-Restrepo and Kannan, 2009;Kalachova et al, 2009;Wei et al, 2009;Cunha et al, 2010;Dirtu and Covaci, 2010;D'Hollander et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2010).…”

“…Investigators have examined other household characteristics (i.e., residence age, type, and size; flooring, ventilation, and cleaning practices), but have identified few determinants of PBDE dust levels (Wilford et al, 2005;Gevao et al, 2006;Karlsson et al, 2007;Tan et al, 2007b;Allen et al, 2008a;Imm et al, 2009;Toms et al, 2009a, b;Cunha et al, 2010). Stapleton et al (2005) found a significant negative correlation between the residence square footage and the contribution of BDE-209 to the total PBDE dust concentrations.…”