To fulfill national and international fire safety standards, flame retardants (FRs) are being added to a wide range of consumer products and building materials consisting of flammable materials like plastic, wood and textiles. While the FR composition of some products and materials has been identified in recent years, the limited global coverage of the data and the large diversity in consumer products necessitates more information for an overall picture of the FR composition in common products/materials. To address this issue, 137 individual samples of various consumer products, building materials and wastes were collected. To identify and characterize potential sources of FRs in indoor environment, all samples were analyzed for content of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDDs) and novel flame retardants (NFRs). The most frequently detected were HBCDDs (85%), with the highest median concentration of ΣHBCDDs of 300 mg kg in polystyrenes. The highest median concentration of ΣPBDEs was found in recycled plastic materials, reaching 4 mg kg. The lowest concentrations were observed for NFRs, where the median of ΣNFRs reached 0.4 mg kg in the group of electrical & electronic equipment wastes. This suggests that for consumer products and building materials that are currently in-use, legacy compounds still contribute to the overall burden of FRs. Additionally, contrasting patterns of FR composition in recycled and virgin plastics, revealed using principle component analysis (PCA), suggest that legacy flame retardants are reentering the market through recycled products, perpetuating the potential for emissions to indoor environments and thus for human exposure.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.11.032 | DOI Listing |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, AT-3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria.
Biophysical constraints limit the specificity with which transcription factors (TFs) can target regulatory DNA. While individual nontarget binding events may be low affinity, the sheer number of such interactions could present a challenge for gene regulation by degrading its precision or possibly leading to an erroneous induction state. Chromatin can prevent nontarget binding by rendering DNA physically inaccessible to TFs, at the cost of energy-consuming remodeling orchestrated by pioneer factors (PFs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Internet Res
January 2025
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States.
Health care is undergoing a "revolution," where patients are becoming consumers and armed with apps, consumer review scores, and, in some countries, high out-of-pocket costs. Although economic analyses and health technology assessment (HTA) have come a long way in their evaluation of the clinical, economic, ethical, legal, and societal perspectives that may be impacted by new technologies and procedures, these approaches do not reflect underlying patient preferences that may be important in the assessment of "value" in the current value-based health care transition. The major challenges that come with the transformation to a value-based health care system lead to questions such as "How are economic analyses, often the basis for policy and reimbursement decisions, going to switch from a societal to an individual perspective?" and "How do we then assess (economic) value, considering individual preference heterogeneity, as well as varying heuristics and decision rules?" These challenges, related to including the individual perspective in cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), have been widely debated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess
January 2025
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science (DIVAS), University of Milan, Lodi, Italy.
Beehives can accumulate environmental contaminants as bees gather pollen, propolis, and water from their surroundings, contaminating hive products like honey. Moreover, in multifloral environments, bees can interact with plants treated with different pesticides, often causing higher pesticides concentrations in multi-floral honey than in mono-floral varieties. Glyphosate and glufosinate are both widely used herbicides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Expect
February 2025
Community Paediatrics Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Background And Objective: Migrant and refugee women, families, and their children can experience significant language, cultural, and psychosocial barriers to engage with child and family services. Integrated child and family health Hubs are increasingly promoted as a potential solution to address access barriers; however, there is scant literature on how to best implement them with migrant and refugee populations. Our aim was to explore with service providers and consumers the barriers, enablers, and experiences with Hubs and the resulting building blocks required for acceptable Hub implementation for migrant and refugee families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Health Forum
January 2025
Department of Emergency Medicine and Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
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