Brominated Fire Retardants Possibly Linked To Seal Dieoffs -Cape Cod Times

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"The highest levels (of BFRs) in the world are in the U.S., 10 to 40 times higher than Asia and Europe," said Susan Shaw, an environmental toxicologist attempting to solve the mysterious deaths of as many as 1,000 otherwise healthy adult harbor seals and gray seals along the New England coastline over the past three years.

The National Marine Fisheries Service declared two "unusual mortality events" for seals, one in 2004 and one in 2006. The declaration releases funding allowing a greater level of tissue sampling. Since 2006, researchers have sampled nearly 500 animals, most of which were dead. The die-off appears to be tailing off, with only 35 animals reported in 2007, but investigators have yet to find a clear cause, said NMFS spokeswoman Teri Frady.

Shaw said her analysis of harbor seal tissue samples from Maine, Cape Cod and New York showed high BFR levels. "They are loaded with chemicals," Shaw said. Some evidence suggests BFRs could disrupt thyroid hormones and cause psychological and other long-term disorders, including cancer.

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Shaw, the executive director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute in Blue Hill, Maine, is concerned that seals may just be our canaries in the coal mine. BFRs were first detected in human breast milk in the 1970s in Sweden, where levels tripled over 20 years. U.S. breast milk shows levels 100 times that in Sweden. Shaw and others believe high levels of chemicals in the body could lower the immune system responses in seals and in humans, making them more susceptible to diseases.

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http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/NEWS/710150327