Halogenated flame retardants as sources for POPs in the environment

Brominated flame retardants (BFR) are commonly used for reducing the risk of fire. Bromine radicals formed at elevated temperatures terminate the radical-chain reaction in fire. Remaining aromatic BFR fragments can partially recombine to halogenated POPs including PBDD/F. This paper deals with the formation of POPs from BFR in laboratory-scale combustion experiments and discusses the reaction mechanism involved. It is shown that the mechanism of POPs formation is mostly independent of the type of BFR incorporation into the polymer matrix as monomeric additive or through chemical bonds to the polymer backbone. Furthermore, an improved clean-up procedure is shown which enables an almost complete removal of the remaining BFR from the analyte solution in order to avoid their interferences with the traces of PBDD/F and/or formation of artifacts in the ionization chamber of GC/MS equipment.