Brominated Flame Retardants in Children’s Toys: Concentration, Composition, and Children’s Exposure and Risk Assessment

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Abstract
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE), decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), and polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) were found in children’s toys purchased from South China. The median BFR concentrations in the hard plastic toys were 53 000, 5540 ng/g, 101.1 ng/g, and 27.9 ng/g, for total PBDEs, DBDPE, BTBPE, and PBBs, respectively, which were notably higher than values in other toys. The PBDE concentrations were below the threshold limit (1000 ppm) required by the European Commission’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives in all of the toys, except for one hard plastic toy with a total PBDE concentration of 5 344 000 ng/g. The BFR profiles in the toys were consistent with the patterns of their current production and consumption in China, where PBDEs, specifically decaBDE product, were the dominant BFR, followed by the emerging DBDPE. The relatively high concentrations of octa- and nonaBDEs in the foam toys and the results of principal component analysis (PCA) may suggest the decomposition of highly brominated BDEs during the manufacturing processes of the toys. Daily total PBDE exposures associated with toys via inhalation, mouthing, dermal contact, and oral ingestion ranged from 82.6 to 8992 pg/kg bw-day for children of 3 months to 14 years of age. Higher exposures, predominantly contributed through the mouthing pathway, were observed for infants and toddlers than for the other subgroups. In most cases, children’s BFR exposure via the toys likely accounts for a small proportion of their daily BFR exposure, and the hazard quotients for noncancer risk evaluation were far below 1. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the concentrations of BFRs in toys, and the potential exposures to children.

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