Toddlers have higher levels of flame retardants than their mothers

In a newly published study by Sonya Lunder et al., PBDEs were assessed in blood samples collected from 20 mothers and their children. The sum of PBDEs for children were about 2.8 times higher than for mothers. This research suggests that children’s increased hand-to-mouth activity and exposures from breast milk may result in greater ingestion of PBDEs than adults. Testing mother-child pairs can control for variability between households, diets, and perhaps even genetics.

This data, presented last year in an EWG report, was published in a peer-reviewed report http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es1009357

In a study published last March by Rose et al. from UC Davis, PBDE levels in the blood plasma of 94 children were found to be between 2 and 10 times higher than levels previously found for U.S. adults (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es702451p).
Some California children's PBDE levels exceed the concentrations documented in adults with high occupational exposure to PBDEs, including recycling workers and carpet installers.

Kellyn Bett's article about these two papers in on the Chemical & Engineering News’ website at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/88/i26/8826news1.html

In this article, Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, says that both studies are important for confirming that U.S. children have higher exposure and different exposure routes than adults do. "Newer data showing that PBDE replacements also make their way into household raises the question: do we really need these flame retardants in all of the products where they're being used, like nursing pillows?" she says.

Adding to concerns about health effects, recent studies have linked elevated PBDEs to decreased IQ and neurodevelopment in children and increased time to become pregnant in women.

1) In a study published in May, Herbstman et al. analyzed umbilical cord blood for PBDE levels and assessed the neurodevelopmental effects in the children at 12-48 and 72 months of age. Children of both age groups with higher PBDE levels scored lower on tests of mental and physical development. (Environ. Health Perspect., DOI: 10.1289/ehp.0901340 ). Similar results were found in a study by Roze et al. published last December (DOI: 10.1289/ehp.0901015).

2) In a new study by Harley et al., blood samples taken from pregnant women and analyzed for PBDE levels to find a correlation with the number of months it took the women to become pregnant. Increasing levels of all PBDE congeners measured were associated with longer time to pregnancy. (Environ. Health Perspect., DOI:10.1289/ehp.0901450)