{"id":2429,"date":"2012-10-25T15:02:12","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T20:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=2429"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:26","slug":"no-way-to-treat-our-kids-formaldehyde-flame-retardants-and-other-toxics-exceed-safe-levels-in-air-and-dust-in-day-care-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2012\/10\/25\/no-way-to-treat-our-kids-formaldehyde-flame-retardants-and-other-toxics-exceed-safe-levels-in-air-and-dust-in-day-care-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"No way to treat our kids: Formaldehyde, flame retardants and other toxics exceed safe levels in air and dust in day care centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em><em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arb.ca.gov\/research\/single-project.php?row_id=64830\">study conducted by the State of California<\/a>\u00a0<em>[Update 10-26-12:\u00a0 The study was funded by the California Air Resources Board and conducted by Asa Bradman and colleagues at the <a href=\"http:\/\/cerch.org\/\">Center for Environmental Research and Children\u2019s Health<\/a> at UC Berkeley]<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 described as \u201cthe first comprehensive study in child care centers to measure a broad spectrum of pollutants including many volatile organic chemicals, particles, and pesticides, and emerging pollutants such as flame retardants, phthalates and perfluorinated compounds\u201d \u2013 has routinely detected dozens of these toxic contaminants in the air or floor dust present in such facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arb.ca.gov\/html\/fact_sheets\/preschool_exposure.pdf\">key findings<\/a> include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFormaldehyde levels in 87% of the facilities exceeded the California acute and chronic reference exposure guideline levels for non-cancer health effects such as respiratory and sensory irritation (e.g. eyes, nose, throat, and lungs).\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn most facilities, levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, chloroform, benzene, or ethylbenzene exceeded child-specific Safe Harbor Levels computed by the report authors based on Proposition 65 guidelines for carcinogens.\u201d\u00a0 [These are levels calculated to result in a cancer risk of at least 1 per 100,000 people.]<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPhthalates, flame retardants, pesticides, perfluorinated compounds, and lead were also frequently detected in dust and\/or air.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cChild dose estimates from ingestion of dust for two brominated flame retardants (BDE-47 and -99) exceeded the non-cancer U.S. EPA reference health dose (RfD) in 10.3% of facilities for children &lt; 1 year old.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTwo VOCs commonly found in cleaners and personal care products, d-limonene and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, had the highest concentrations compared to other chemical groups.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The presumed sources of most if not all of these chemicals are everyday materials and products used to construct, furnish or clean these facilities.\u00a0 Formaldehyde, for example, is used in hundreds of materials and products, including furniture, wood products, carpeting, paints, and household cleaning products.\u00a0 California took action in 2007 to limit is use in pressed wood products, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gpo.gov\/fdsys\/pkg\/BILLS-111s1660enr\/pdf\/BILLS-111s1660enr.pdf\">Congress passed a law in 2010<\/a> to do the same.\u00a0 (Unfortunately, the proposed regulations needed to implement the federal law \u2013 which Congress mandated be in place by January 1, 2013 \u2013 are stuck in regulatory review limbo at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB):\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reginfo.gov\/public\/do\/eoDetails?rrid=121934\">proposed regulations were sent by EPA to OMB\u2019s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) more than 170 days ago<\/a>, on May 5 of this year, but remain under \u201cpending review\u201d by OIRA despite the requirement for OIRA to complete its reviews within 90 days.)<\/p>\n<p>The larger problem exposed by the California study demands, of course, a far more comprehensive solution \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edf.org\/health\/policy\/chemicals-policy-reform\">TSCA reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. A study conducted by the State of California\u00a0[Update 10-26-12:\u00a0 The study was funded by the California Air Resources Board and conducted by Asa Bradman and colleagues at the Center for Environmental Research and Children\u2019s Health at UC Berkeley]\u00a0\u2013 described as \u201cthe first comprehensive study in child care centers &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56100,44,5009],"tags":[5013,5019,39171,39164,5011,39163],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-science","category-policy","category-health-science","tag-children-safety","tag-consumer-products","tag-exposure-vs-hazard","tag-formaldehyde","tag-pbde","tag-phthalates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12669,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions\/12669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2429"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}