“How do flame retardants affect our children?”

At this point, it is difficult to really understand the full extent of what PBDEs are doing do to our children’s growing bodies. Scientific research conducted on rodents shows that like PCBs, PBDEs interfere with the thyroid gland’s ability to send its hormone thyroxine to do its job in promoting a healthy fetal brain growth. Because PCBs and PBDEs are structurally and toxicologically similar, scientists anticipate seeing the same cognitive and health problems associated with PCBs, including problems with learning, memory, attention and behavior.