Is House Dust the Missing Exposure Pathway for PBDEs? An Analysis of the Urban Fate and Human Exposure to PBDEs

Heather A. Jones-Otazo,† John P. Clarke,† Miriam L. Diamond,*† Josephine A. Archbold,‡ Glenn Ferguson,‡ Tom Harner,§ G. Mark Richardson,‖ John Jake Ryan, and Bryony Wilford#
Department of Geography, Centre for Urban Health Initiatives, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3, Cantox Environmental Inc., 1900 Minnesota Court, Suite 130, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5N 3C9, Environment Canada, Meteorological Service of Canada, Air Quality Research Branch, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T4, Risklogic Scientific Services Inc., 14 Clarendon Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 0P2, Health Canada, Food Research Division, Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0L2, and Environmental Science Department, Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster U.K. LA1 4YQ
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2005, 39 (14), pp 5121–5130
DOI: 10.1021/es048267b
Publication Date (Web): June 15, 2005
Copyright © 2005 American Chemical Society
Air Pollution and Industrial Hygiene

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) body burdens in North America are 20 times that of Europeans and some “high accumulation” individuals have burdens up to 1−2 orders of magnitude higher than median values, the reasons for which are not known. We estimated emissions and fate of ΣPBDEs (minus BDE-209) in a 470 km2 area of Toronto, Canada, using the Multi-media Urban Model (MUM-Fate). Using a combination of measured and modeled concentrations for indoor and outdoor air, soil, and dust plus measured concentrations in food, we estimated exposure to ΣPBDEs via soil, dust, and dietary ingestion and indoor and outdoor inhalation pathways. Fate calculations indicate that 57−85% of PBDE emissions to the outdoor environment originate from within Toronto and that the dominant removal process is advection by air to downwind locations. Inadvertent ingestion of house dust is the largest contributor to exposure of toddlers through to adults and is thus the main exposure pathway for all life stages other than the infant, including the nursing mother, who transfers PBDEs to her infant via human milk. The next major exposure pathway is dietary ingestion of animal and dairy products. Infant consumption of human milk is the largest contributor to lifetime exposure. Inadvertent ingestion of dust is the main exposure pathway for a scenario of occupational exposure in a computer recycling facility and a fish eater. Ingestion of dust can lead to almost 100-fold higher exposure than “average” for a toddler with a high dust intake rate living in a home in which PBDE concentrations are elevated.

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History

  • Published In Issue July 15, 2005
  • Received for review November 5, 2004
    Revised manuscript received April 30, 2005
    Accepted May 4, 2005

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