Novel halogenated flame retardants in Canadian human milk from the MIREC study (2008-2011).

Rawn DFK, Corrigan C, Ménard C, Sun WF, Breton F, Arbuckle TE. Chemosphere. 2024 Feb;350:141065. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.141065. Epub 2023 Dec 28

Question: Are there new flame retardants present in human milk? These new flame retardants were developed to replace brominated flame retardants that are now restricted in use because of their persistence in the environment and toxicity.

What did the researchers do:
Researchers at Health Canada developed new laboratory methods to measure 15 new halogenated flame retardants and 8 other brominated flame retardants in human milk. About 540 human milk samples from the MIREC study were analysed for these new flame retardants.

What did they find:
Nine new flame retardants and 2 brominated flame retardant metabolism products were detected in at least 10% of the samples. Levels of the new flame retardants did not differ by maternal age, parity or pre-pregnancy BMI (body mass index). However, older women had higher levels of one of the brominated flame retardants.

What does this mean:
This study provides the first Canadian data on levels of these new flame retardants in human milk. The frequency of detection and concentrations observed in the Canadian human milk seem to align well with levels reported in Europe.

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