Post by Lisa Petrison on Dec 3, 2011 6:01:21 GMT -5
Here is a report from Spring 2011, discussing the large numbers of PBDE's in the Delaware Bay.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/3639311531/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
>Artificially created substances, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE) have been widely used by manufacturers since the mid-20th century. Incorporating PBDEs into the products, such as furniture or electric appliances, substantially reduces the intensity of fire as they act as artificial flame retardants. Although, once released into the environment, PBDEs exhibit strong resistance towards environmental degradation and by certain pathways they may collect in various tissues of the human body. PBDEs contamination has been detected across the globe. It is presumed that at some level, PBDEs can be in almost everyone. At high levels, PBDEs may cause severe health problems; therefore, it is crucial to understand how PBDEs are dispersed in the environment. This book is a compilation of several projects implemented at Rutgers University by Archil Zarnadze, Ph.D. and deals with fate and transport of PBDEs in NY/NJ harbor and Lower Delaware River valley. In General PBDEs correlate with temperature but not the population density. Gas-particle partitioning is an important aspect of PBDEs removal from the system. Annual PBDEs loads are 8.7 kg/yr in Delaware Bay and 2 kg/yr in NY/NJ Harbor.
I'm especially interested in this because of Mary Schweitzer's dramatic description of how she got sick in Delaware.
"On October 24, 1994, I drove up to grade papers, I sat down in my study with the papers in my lap, and I had a blackout. When I came to, I looked down at the papers and I could not understand a word of them. It was as if it was in a Cyrillic alphabet. I couldn't stand at first. This was all very frightening. I didn't know what was happening to me. After that, I had intense pain behind my eyes and the back of my neck, headaches like migraines except that they were symmetrical. I lost my sense of balance, that's called ataxia, I would have to grope my way around the house. I couldn't pass a Romberg test, one foot in front of the other, close your eyes, I fell over. I had a number of symptoms that would be consistent with encephalitis. But nobody could figure out what I had, except my students. My students had seen it before, because there'd been an outbreak in southern New Jersey. I lived in Delaware, nobody knew what the heck I had."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnBvAOEtU4A
www.amazon.com/gp/product/3639311531/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
>Artificially created substances, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE) have been widely used by manufacturers since the mid-20th century. Incorporating PBDEs into the products, such as furniture or electric appliances, substantially reduces the intensity of fire as they act as artificial flame retardants. Although, once released into the environment, PBDEs exhibit strong resistance towards environmental degradation and by certain pathways they may collect in various tissues of the human body. PBDEs contamination has been detected across the globe. It is presumed that at some level, PBDEs can be in almost everyone. At high levels, PBDEs may cause severe health problems; therefore, it is crucial to understand how PBDEs are dispersed in the environment. This book is a compilation of several projects implemented at Rutgers University by Archil Zarnadze, Ph.D. and deals with fate and transport of PBDEs in NY/NJ harbor and Lower Delaware River valley. In General PBDEs correlate with temperature but not the population density. Gas-particle partitioning is an important aspect of PBDEs removal from the system. Annual PBDEs loads are 8.7 kg/yr in Delaware Bay and 2 kg/yr in NY/NJ Harbor.
I'm especially interested in this because of Mary Schweitzer's dramatic description of how she got sick in Delaware.
"On October 24, 1994, I drove up to grade papers, I sat down in my study with the papers in my lap, and I had a blackout. When I came to, I looked down at the papers and I could not understand a word of them. It was as if it was in a Cyrillic alphabet. I couldn't stand at first. This was all very frightening. I didn't know what was happening to me. After that, I had intense pain behind my eyes and the back of my neck, headaches like migraines except that they were symmetrical. I lost my sense of balance, that's called ataxia, I would have to grope my way around the house. I couldn't pass a Romberg test, one foot in front of the other, close your eyes, I fell over. I had a number of symptoms that would be consistent with encephalitis. But nobody could figure out what I had, except my students. My students had seen it before, because there'd been an outbreak in southern New Jersey. I lived in Delaware, nobody knew what the heck I had."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnBvAOEtU4A