Please find the abstract for this month’s SOCAAR seminar attached.  

Halogenated flame retardants: past, present and future 

Dr. Emma Goosey
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Diamond Environmental Research Group
Department of Geography, University of Toronto

Halogenated flame retardants have been added to commercial goods and products since the 
1970s to reduce the spread of fire. Their applications include textile, furniture foam, construction 
materials, and electronics (plastic casings and circuit boards). Polybrominated diphenyl ethers 
(PBDEs), organobromine compounds, dominated the market in the 90’s, and consisted of three 
commercial mixtures. Within a decade there was mounting evidence showed the global 
distribution of PBDEs and their persistence, bioaccumulative and toxic properties. By 2004, two 
PBDE formulations were phased out by regulation in Europe and voluntarily by industry in North 
America. Since then, replacement compounds have been found in the environment. These 
replacement compounds include halogenated and organophosphorus compounds.

I will discuss the prevalence of these ‘novel’ flame retardants measured across Toronto by means 
of passive and active air sampling, in both indoor and outdoor environments. Concentrations 
remain highest indoors because of the abundance of sources, and have been measured in air, 
dust, window films and dermal wipes. Outdoors a monitoring transect across the city indicated 
novel flame retardants concentrations are spatially distributed, with an urban pulse being 
generated by both population and building density. Suburban regions are on an order of 
magnitude lower than downtown Toronto.

February 6, 2013, 3 - 4 pm
Wallberg Building, 200 College Street, Room 407

This seminar will be recorded and will be available after the talk at the following 
site: 
http://www.socaar.utoronto.ca/collaboration/SOCAAR_Seminar_Series.htm
Recordings of past SOCAAR seminars can also be found here.