Some People At Greater Risk For Toxic Exposure To Flame Retardants

December 11, 2013- Flame-retardant chemicals are everywhere, but a new study and a new film point to two groups of people whose exposure risk may be particularly high: firefighters exposed to toxic fumes and gymnasts who tumble into pits of foam blocks.

 
In "Toxic Hot Seat,” which premiered on HBO Nov. 25, retired San Francisco Fire Department captain and cancer survivor Tony Stefani describes his battle with transitional cell carcinoma, a very rare cancer normally found only in chemical industry workers. When firefighters battle fires, they confront burning chemicals and their byproducts, including the flame-retardants, which are added to everything from clothes to couches. These chemicals have been associated with neurological and reproductive disorders, and cancers.
 
Two more firefighters at Stefani's station came down with the same rare cancer. Levels of a common flame retardant measured in the blood of 12 San Francisco firefighters was two to three times higher than the levels found in the general population, according to a study published in February. A study by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, released recently found higher rates of cancer in 30,000 U.S. firefighters than the general population.
Competitive gymnasts may face similar threats. Courtney Carignan, a postdoctoral researcher at The Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center at Dartmouth University, spent much of her childhood vaulting onto squishy mats and tumbling into pits of soft cubes.
 
During those 12 years in the sport, the thought never crossed her mind that she might be touching, inhaling and ingesting chemicals that could endanger her health. Carignan was at Boston University School of Public Health when she led a small study published recently on gymnasts’ exposure to flame-retardant chemicals.  
 
In the new study, Carignan and her colleagues found four to 6.5 times more flame-retardants in the blood of 11 collegiate gymnasts than in the U.S. general population. Flame-retardants are added to polyurethane foam -- whether the filling is a couch cushion or an unupholstered block in a gym – and they are not chemically bound. This makes it easy for them to escape into the air and attach to dust particles. There are often coatings of dust after gymnasts land in foam pits.
 
According to a report published in November by the nonprofit Environment and Human Health Inc., nearly 1.5 million tons of flame retardants, including some 200 distinct chemicals, are produced every year.
 
 
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