Home Flame Retardants Found in River

Scientists with the Washington Toxics Coalition tested household dust and laundry wastewater from 20 homes in the state’s cities of Longview and Vancouver and took samples of incoming and outgoing flow from two wastewater treatment plants that discharge into the Columbia River, the Northwest’s biggest waterway. They detected flame retardants in all the tests.

The conclusion of the study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is that flame retardants are sloughing off household products such as couches and TVs and collecting on people’s clothing, washing out in the laundry and passing through wastewater treatment plants into local waterways.

Source: WaToxics.org