Description
Canada, Mexico, and the United States, in their roles as Parties to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), have taken a common interest in carrying out a case study to better understand the presence of 16 emerging flame retardants in consumer products. As a result, a project entitled Enhancing Trilateral Understanding of Flame Retardants and Their Use in Manufactured Items (CEC 2014) is being supported under the CEC’s Operational Plan 2013–2014, through a project team consisting of representative members from the CEC Secretariat, Health Canada (HC), Environment Canada (EC), Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático (INECC) under the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat), and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The results of Phase 2 of this project are discussed in this report. These results cover the targeted product sampling and analysis of a select list of emerging flame regardants. Phase 2 was carried out in two parts: 1) a screening technique was used to determine the presence of bromine, chlorine, and phosphorus, elements which could indicate the presence of one of the 16 flame retardants of interest, and 2) a quantitative analysis of samples taken from the products was performed. The results of the XRF screening and GC/MS laboratory analyses are discussed in terms of general trends across product type, sample category, and country.
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