"High Levels of Flame Retardants Found on Airliners"

"Spending about 100 hours each month in the air, flight attendants are bombarded with pesticides, radiation, ozone and any illnesses passengers carry on board. Now new research shows that they also fly along with some of the highest levels ever measured for some flame retardants."



"All 19 commercial airliners in a new study had several flame retardants in their dust. And one chemical was measured at concentrations more than 100 times higher in the airplane dust than in dust collected from homes and offices. Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke University and co-author of the new study, said these levels were 'some of the highest measurements I've ever seen,' which 'suggests that exposure levels could be higher than one normally experiences in a car or the home environment.'"

Brett Israel reports for Environmental Health News March 28, 2013.

Source: EHN, 03/28/2013