Summary of the Levels and Trends of Brominated Flame Retardants in the Arctic
Author:
Cynthia A. de Wit and Derek C.G. Muir
Date Published:
2006
Description:
The first indication that brominated flame retardants (BFRs) were reaching the Arctic was the detection of lower brominated PBDEs in Svalbard Brünnich’s guillemots (130 ng/g lipid weight) and ringed seals (40 ng/g lw) collected in 1981¹. Whitefish collected from Lake Storvindeln in 1986, a pristine mountain lake in the Swedish mountains near Ammarnäs, had SPBDE levels of 26 ng/g lw ² and an air sample collected in 1990-91 from Ammarnäs contained 8.3 pg/m ³ of Te-PeBDEs and 6.1 pg/m³ of HBCD, indicating long-range transport ³. New data on brominated flame retardants in various media in the Arctic are summarized here. SPBDE denotes the sum of lower brominated congeners. If DecaBDE (BDE209) was quantified, this is indicated.
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