Among the many environmental contaminants that Assistant Professor Ami Zota knows a lot about are the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a group of flame retardants that were once widely used in consumer products including padded furniture, televisions, and other electronics. Although these compounds have not been used in U.S. furniture or other products padded with polyurethane foam since 2005, Zota’s research shows why exposure to long-lived toxic chemicals can be so difficult to eliminate.
Zota is the coauthor of two recent research papers that focus on samples from pregnant women and their children, a group of special interest because PBDE exposure has been linked to learning problems. Zota conducted the work with a research team from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), where Zota completed a postdoctoral fellowship. The UCSF researchers have been studying populations of ethnically diverse, pregnant women residing in Northern California, a state that is believed to have some of the nation’s highest exposure to PBDEs due to fire safety laws that have since been changed.
A paper published in Environment International for which Zota serves as the first author reports findings which suggest that the human fetus can be directly exposed to concentrations of PBDEs that may be higher than previously estimated based on maternal serum. One of Zota’s coauthors for that work is Susanna Mitro, Zota’s former research associate, who is now working toward her PhD at Harvard University.
The second paper presents research indicating that while policies to remove PBDEs from the marketplace have successfully led to declines in exposures to some PBDEs, human exposures to these pollutants could plateau and remain ubiquitous in human populations.
Zota is quick to stress that the news isn’t all bad. A few years ago, she was the lead author of research with the same UCSF team which showed that PBDE levels declined strikingly in pregnant women soon after the PBDEs used in furniture were banned in 2003.
“Banning chemicals can have a significant impact,” Zota says. “Unfortunately, because persistent chemicals like PBDEs exist in the environment for years, exposure can continue for decades. The best way to ensure that people aren’t exposed to chemicals that can harm their health is by designing chemicals used in consumer products so that they are inherently safe.”