Flame-proofing the Arctic?

The polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) chemicals that are used as flame retardants in consumer products appear to be contaminating pristine sections of the Arctic more quickly than either polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or dioxins, according to an article published in the research section of this issue (1). Other recent ES&T research provides insight into the mechanism that allows the PBDEs to take such a quick trip to the Arctic (2) and reveals that some young children have significantly higher levels of PBDEs in their blood than older people (3). Åke Bergman, professor of chemistry at Sweden's Stockholm University and one of the world's foremost PBDE researchers, calls the new ES&T papers a "really important" part of an avalanche of data on PBDEs now entering the research literature.