But here’s a grain of good environmental news, for a change: the public health policies banning flame retardants seem to be working. A decade ago, California banned a class of flame retardants called polybrominated dipenyl esters (PBDEs), and the rest of the country followed suit. Today, research published online in Environmental Science & Technology found that levels of these flame retardants have rapidly declined in pregnant women’s blood. In 2008-2009, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco tested the blood of 25 women. All of them had all five of the PBDEs, and the levels of PBDEs in their blood were the highest among pregnant women anywhere in the world. After the ban, in 2011-2012, 36 different women from the same community were tested again. Only one of the PBDEs was present in all of the women—a drop of two-thirds. More from Prevention: Flame Retardants Found In Household Dust “We weren’t sure of the impact of residual exposure, but this shows there is more turnover of consumer products than we expected,” says Ami R. Zota, Sc.D., assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and the study’s lead author. “We’re still seeing some residual effects from exposure, but it’s not as high as we feared it might be. " This doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be a corresponding drop in children with learning difficulties, or that any of the other side effects of exposure will disappear, says Dr. Zota. “In the 10 years or so since these chemicals were banned, there have been replacements used that are not necessarily any safer,” says Dr. Zota. (Read about the effect brominated flame retardants are having on our bodies here.) “We can’t extrapolate simply because we don’t know what is a safe level for these chemicals, or even if there is a safe level. This study is just encouragement that what we do at a state level can have a positive impact on people’s lives and health.” These findings may be perfectly timed as California is considering another change to their flammability threshold regulation, in which furniture would not ignite when exposed to a smoldering cigarette. This change may eliminate the use of all flame retardants. But just because a chemical is banned or no longer used doesn’t mean it disappears from our environment and our bodies. This study also measured polychlorinated biphenyl ethers (PCBs), which are a member of the same chemical family as PBDEs and have long half lives—from 2-10 years—in the environment and in our bodies. Even though PCBs were banned in 1979, the UCSF researchers did not find a similar drop over the three-year study period. Still, it’s a drop of good news in a field overwhelmed by scary stats. For now, we’re happy to add this study to our small (but growing) list of environmental victories. More from Prevention: How Dirty Is Your Office?
