A Banned Carcinogen Is Still in Our Food Chain

PBDEs accumulate as you travel up the food web — eventually reaching the apex predator: us.

Today I’m going to tell you about a chemical that might cause cancer — one I suspect you haven’t heard of before.

These types of stories usually end with a call for regulation — to ban said chemical or substance — but, in this case that has already happened. This new carcinogen I’m telling you about is actually an old chemical. And it has not been manufactured or legally imported in the US since 2013. So… why bother?

Well, because in this case, the chemical — or really group of chemicals — polybrominated diphenyl ethers — hereafter PBDEs — are still around… in our soil… in our food… and in our blood.

PBDEs are a group of compounds that confer flame-retardant properties to plastics, and they were used extensively in the latter part of the 20th century in electronic enclosures, business equipment, and foam cushioning in upholstery.

But there was a problem. They don’t chemically bond to plastics — they are just sort of mixed in- which means they can leech out. They are hydrophobic, meaning they don’t get washed out of soil, and, when ingested or inhaled by humans, dissolve in our fat stores making it difficult for our normal excretory systems to excrete them.

PBDEs biomagnify. Small animals can take them up from contaminated soil or water, and those animals…