Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Inhalation of house dust loaded with the chemical (Allen et al., 2008) is
the major intake mechanism. BDEs released from products or carpets may
be adsorbed onto airborne particles of dust (Takigami et al., 2008) where
the levels can be as high as 2.9 µg/g-dust. The total exposure from all
sources was estimated to be (Health Canada, 2010) 0.05-0.08 for infants
and children, 0.013-0.036 for youth, and 0.008-0.009 for adults (µg/kg
body weight/day). These compare with the critical effects level of 2.22 (mg/
kg bw/day) for PBDE.
7.4.1 Toxicity of PBDEs
Both animal model and
in vitro
studies suggest adverse developmental,
reproductive, and neurotoxic as well as endocrine disruptive effects
associated with exposure to PBDEs. Evidences for EDC activity of PBDEs
are based primarily on animal model studies (Van der Ven et al., 2008).
Mice and rat studies on deca-DBE at a dose level of about 5 mg/kg bw/
day or above resulted in B-cell activation and a reduced number of natural
killer (NK) cells in the offspring (Teshima et al., 2008). The limited human
toxicity data reported are summarized in
Table 7.10
.
