Electronics’ flame retardants are finding their way into recyclable goods like to-go containers and kitchen tools. Find out what this study revealed and how you might lower your risk.
The tablet, phone, or computer you are reading this information on most likely includes fire-retardant chemicals. Stopping your devices—including your TV—from catching fire has several clear advantages.
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Like everything else, fire retardants come in various varieties. Among the more worrying varieties are brominated flame retardants (BFRs). This is so because they are known to gather in the tissues of the body and are regarded to be poisonous. BFRs have been connected to cancer, hormonal disturbances, neurological, reproductive and developmental damage.Only one Printed circuit boards and the plastic housing enclosures of electrical and electronic gadgets commonly feature BFRs.
How was this study carried out, and what results?
These scientists reasoned that products produced from recycled black plastic were more likely to include fire retardants—including ones that have been phased out and outlawed. This is in part because most electronic housing cases are black. Furthermore, even if new products no longer feature the banned BFRs, there is a great likelihood that items including them still find their way into homes. Taken to be recycled, they wind up in our environment as various products—some of which we consume and cook with.
203 black plastic products in all were selected for testing; food serviceware (28 products), hair accessories (30 products), cooking utensils (109 products), and toys (36 products). From both small, local (non-chain) stores and major chain stores, these items arrived from in-store and online. Children’s toys, Mardi Gras beads, cooking utensils, plastic silverware and plastic “to-go” boxes—what researchers called sushi boxes or trays—were among the products, either completely black plastic or with black plastic components.
How might you lower your risk right now?
You probably come into everyday exposure to these fire retardants if you have any devices. This is so because dust in your house lets you breathe in these pollutants. You also come straight into contact with them when they become goods you consume and cook with from recycled electronics, sometimes known as e-waste. Likewise with toys meant for young children that they could swallow.
And when heated—that is, when you cook with these utensils or reheat leftovers in plastic to-go boxes—the likelihood of the chemicals leaching even more rises. Having food sit in to-go boxes might further raise exposure risk even if you do not reheat it.