ABOUT
Smart discussion of the latest science and news on toxins in your food, water, and air, and what government agencies should be doing to protect public health. Written by EWG staff.
DONATE TO EWG!
Help us protect your health and environment! Please donate $5 to EWG today.
GET EWG'S TIPS & ACTION ALERTS
Sign Up here to receive email updates and tips from EWG and stay informed on the issues that matter most to you.
ENVIROBLOG VIA EMAIL
Join EWG's live chat with Chef Ann Cooper
School lunch: More fruits & veggies, please!
Texas Schools are Drilling for Dollars
Why do blowouts take so long to fix?
SEARCH ENVIROBLOG
FEATURED
Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act. It's Urgent.
Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?
Cell phone radiation series - Part 2: 8 Ways to reduce your exposure
Test Your Knowledge of Cosmetics Safety: 8 Myths Debunked
EWG's Tips for Parents: The Series
EWG's Tips to avoid BPA exposure
EWG on TV
Cutting the Pork from U.S. Farm Bill
Sunscreen safety & DC drinking water
Perchlorate in people, kids' personal care products & plastics, and sunscreen
BPA in baby formula & safe cosmetics
What can I do about fluoride in my water?
What is new carpet treated with? What can I do?
Are stainless steel water bottles safe?
Is mineral-based makeup safer?
PEOPLE TALKING TOXICS
TALK TO US
Did we miss something? Email Enviroblog.
« How industry shanghaied science | Main | Going for the Gold »
Fire retardants in falcons
Peregrine falcons in California's major coastal cities carry the the highest levels of flame retardants and other industrial chemicals ever found in living creatures, according to a new study by California state scientists.
As Marla Cone reports in the Los Angeles Times, California's peregrine falcons were "once driven to the edge of extinction by DDT," which thinned their eggshells so severely their offspring could not survive. In the 1970s, the total number of peregrines in North America dropped as low as 300, including just two in California. Today, 36 years after DDT was banned, the falcon has been removed from the Endangered Species List, and there are believed to be 3,000 nesting pairs, including 300 in California. Now, according to the study, they're under a new chemical assault from fire retardants, known as PBDEs, which are potent neurotoxins used in dozens of everyday products.
Kim Hooper, a scientist with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control's environmental chemistry laboratory who led the study, said the PBDE levels in the peregrines have doubled every 10 years, and might still be increasing. . . . "We think urban wildlife are sentinels for exposure to indoor pollutants in big cities," Hooper said.
And not just any old PBDEs, but the kind known as Deca. That's significant, because two years ago California banned two other kinds of flame retardants, spurring several other states to follow suit and pressuring the manufacturer to pull those two PBDEs of the market. But the chemical industry has fought fiercely to keep the use of Deca, despite evidence of its toxicity.
EWG has published several groundbreaking studies about fire retardants: in San Francisco Bay sportfish, in household dust and in mother's milk.
We're destroying our planet and all it's species and it seems like the world is standing back making little changes and waiting for someone else to do something significant.