Risk Assessment of Flame Retardants in Consumer Products

Dear Colleagues,

The potential health risks from flame-retardant chemicals (FRs) in consumer products are a topic of growing academic and public interest. FRs are used to meet mandatory or voluntary flammability standards for products such as apparel, home furnishings, building materials, and electronics. FRs are associated with numerous health effects, including cancer, developmental neurotoxicity, and endocrine effects. Consumer products are an important source of FR exposure because people spend roughly 20 hours per day indoors. Further, because many OFRs are semi-volatile compounds (SVOCs), FR exposure does not require direct contact with the product. SVOCs migrate into air and adsorb onto suspended particles, settled dust, and surfaces. Despite the abundance of studies on FR toxicity and exposure, few comprehensive risk assessments of FRs in consumer products have been published. Risk assessments have largely focused on upholstered furniture. Other areas of research include class-based risk assessment and the use of human biomonitoring data to assess risk. This Special Issue is devoted to the risk assessment of FR chemicals in consumer products. It welcomes research articles and reviews on the toxicity of FR chemicals, their occurrence in consumer products and the indoor environment, human exposure, epidemiology, and risk assessment.

Dr. Michael A. Babich
Guest Editor

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