Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sjödin, Andreas
• Carlsson, H˚akan
• Thuresson, Kaj
• Sjölin, Sverker
• Bergman, Åke
• Östman, Conny

Titel

Flame Retardants in Indoor Air at an Electronics Recycling Plant and at Other Work Environments

Ist Teil von

• Environmental science & technology, 2001-02, Vol.35 (3), p.448-454

Ort / Verlag

Washington, DC: American Chemical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2001

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Air samples from a plant engaged in recycling electronics goods, a factory assembling printed circuit boards, a computer repair facility, offices equipped with computers, and outdoor air have been analyzed with respect to their content of brominated hydrocarbon and phosphate ester flame retardants. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polybrominated biphenyls, 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane, tetrabromobisphenol A, and organophosphate esters were all detected in the indoor air samples, with the highest concentrations being detected in air from the recycling plant. In air from the dismantling hall at the recycling plant the average concentrations of decabromodiphenyl ether, tetrabromobisphenol A, and triphenyl phosphate were 38, 55, and 58 pmol/m3, respectively. Significantly higher levels of all of these additives were present in air in the vicinity of the shredder at the dismantling plant. This is the first time that 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane and several arylated phosphate esters are reported to be contaminants of air in occupational settings. At all of the other sites investigated, low levels of flame retardants were detected in the indoor air. Flame retardants associated with airborne particles, present at elevated levels, pose a potential health hazard to the exposed workers.