부산대학교 도서관

In recent years chemical pollution research has focused on the study of pollutants that pose a risk to human and/or environmental health due to their toxicity, high persistence in environment and bioaccumulatioin properties. One issue with these substances, including the halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) is that they are continually introduced into the environment from industrial production, use in various consumer products, and releases during recycling and/or disposal. In recent decades, studies on HFRs, particularly on polybrominatedbiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), have increased worldwide, mainly due to their persistence and presence in various matrices. Currently, two of the PBDEs technical products (PentaPBDE and OctaBDE) are being eliminated or have been banned in North America and Europe, while DecaBDE has been banned in Europe. In U.S. DecaBDE production, import and sale will be discontinued in late 2013. After consumption and production decline of PBDEs, other flame retardants are used increasingly to replace them. The Environmental Forum of the Bromine Science (BSEF) of 2001 indicated that the use of HFRs was led by tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) (59%), and that hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) also showed an increase in use worldwide. Therefore, it is important to develop evaluation studies of environmental risk for these substances. This requires detailed information about their presence, fate and transformation in the environment, in order to evaluate the possible exposure of humans and other organisms to these compounds. To achieve this information, the first essential step is to have reliable analytical methods sensitive enough to determine environmental levels. At the beginning of my thesis “Analysis of emerging halogenated flame retardants and its impact on the environment and humans” in 2006, research groups involved in the issue of HFRs started with the optimization of methods for analysis of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) in environmental matrices. Once the scientific community has provided sufficient data on presence, fate, behavior and toxicity of these compounds, we can evaluate whether it is advisable to continue using these HFRs or if, on the contrary, these new emerging HFRs are also detrimental enough to environmental and/or human health that they should also be banned, as were their PBDEs predecessors.