“STUDY REVEALS TOXIC CHEMICALS IN HOUSEHOLD DUST”

                                                        Wall Street Journal – March 23, 2005

     The Environmental Working Group (EWG), the watchdog environmental agency out of Washington D.C., collected house dust from ten homes in states across the country.  Testing these samples, they learned that the levels of brominated fire retardants (PBDEs) found in dust bunnies under beds and behind sofas is unusually high.  Prior to the dust study, they tested breast milk from ten of the twenty study participants.  Comparing these studies, they were mystified to learn that there appears to be no correlation between PBDE levels in household  dust and PBDE levels in our bodies.  One possible explanation might be that some people tend to absorb more PBDEs than others, either metabolizing them differently or eliminating them more slowly.