EMERGING CONCERNS - Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 126

to escape from a fire or extinguish it. They have been found
at very high levels in aquatic systems and are also common
in landfills. Attention to these contaminants is recent, since
no one had bothered to look for them before. The chemicals
are polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs); their structure is
reminiscent of PCBs and dioxins, but with bromine attached
instead of chlorine, and (not surprisingly, given the similar
chemistry of chlorine and bromine) they are also persistent,
toxic, and bioaccumulative (Figure 7.1). They also have many
neurological, endocrine, and developmental effects similar to
PCBs and dioxins, and they are extremely potent thyroid hor-
mone disruptors. In recent years PBDEs have generated inter-
national concern over their widespread distribution in the
environment, their potential to bioaccumulate in humans and
wildlife, and their suspected adverse health effects. Production
of PBDEs in the United States began in the 1970s and peaked in
the late 1990s. An investigative report from the Chicago Tribune
suggests that their widespread use was pushed by the tobacco
companies, which were under fire (as it were) for cigarettes
causing house fires. The industry insisted it couldn't make a
fire-safe cigarette that would appeal to smokers and instead
promoted flame retardant chemicals in furniture—shifting
attention from cigarettes to the couches and chairs that were
going up in flames. They pushed the use of retardant chemi-
cals in furniture and even got the fire marshals association to
promote it—even after it was found that the chemicals were
escaping and accumulating in people and the environment.
With furniture treated with flame retardants, people could
still smoke but not die in burning houses. That way they could
continue buying cigarettes and smoke for more years (until
they died of lung cancer).
PBDEs move from consumer products to the outdoor envi-
ronment and have been found by Barry Kelly and colleagues
in tissues of marine mammals in the Arctic, far from any con-
sumer products. PBDE concentrations in the US marine envi-
ronment are among the highest in the world, perhaps because