Summary: Flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are added to products such as furniture, car seats, textiles, and electronics. These chemicals improve safety by giving consumers more time to react if a fire breaks out. But now they are also showing up in the food we eat, the dust in our houses, and the bodies of possibly the entire U.S. population; meanwhile, recent evidence suggests the potential for worrisome neurodevelopmental effects. In this podcast, Heather Stapleton discusses what we know about routes of PBDE exposure and how these exposures may affect human health. Stapleton is an assistant professor of environmental chemistry at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and coauthor of "Metabolism of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) by human hepatocytes in vitro"
