For about a decade, scientists have known that most Americans
have minute quantities of flame retardants called polybrominated
diphenyl ethers, PBDEs, in their bodies, but they were not sure
how they got there. Now a study has found what the authors say
is the first documented case of serious PBDE contamination of
food in the United States. The authors of the study, in the
February issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives,
bought packages of 10 brands of butter at grocery stores in
Dallas and shipped frozen samples to a laboratory in Germany.
Sophisticated tests there found trace amounts of PBDEs in each
sample, with one having 2,000 times more than the others. “It’s
very startling,” said Dr. Arnold Schecter, professor of
environmental and occupational health sciences at the University
of Texas School of Public Health at Dallas and an adviser to the
Environmental Protection Agency. “It was so much higher than we
had ever seen before, and this just stood out like a sore
thumb.” After further test