Table 2 Factors Influencing BFR Exposure
From: Pregnant Women’s perceptions of exposure to brominated flame retardants
THEME II: Factors Influencing BFR Exposure | Comments |
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IIA: Cost | “You can only redo your home so much when you're having a baby, eventually finances get [in the way]…there's only so much you can do…for yourself and for your baby…” RP1 “Some stuff [such as a couch] is just a little too expensive to replace.” RP20 “…if…the stuff I use for cleaning…on the back…said don’t use…I would go out and buy the safe stuff…but, my couch…I’d have to know for sure… because that would cost a lot of money and it could be really unnecessary…” RP22 |
IIB: Lack of Preventative Measures | “…just about everything you buy you’re not going to get that information…at least what was used to make it…” RP12 “…if it’s [BFRs] not banned and every house has it in them how do you go around [avoid it]…” RP15 |
IIC: Difficult to Rid | “It seems unrealistic to get rid of all of these…wiring, insulation, plastics, textiles, and phones…it’s all over the place…How are you going to control that?” RP18 “TVs, can’t avoid them, computers, can’t avoid them, can’t avoid really any of those, carpets, furniture, kitchen appliances…they’re there.” RP20 “Well I think…it would impact anybody that reads that stuff [potential harms of BFRs] but how do you avoid it…it’s around us all the time…” RP3 “…we’d have to go through everything and see what’s where. I wouldn’t even know where to begin…” RP15 “…if it’s used everywhere it’s probably in this room in several forms…It’s hard to avoid unless you replace it as you go, as you upgrade things.” RP12 “…just about everything could be of concern…and we don’t know, I guess, kind of hard to avoid everything…especially it’s in your…daily living…the exposures, so kinda hard…” RP5 |
IID: Limitations of Current Knowledge | “It [the harm from BFR exposure] would need to be their [the researchers] concern, definitely a problem then for me to do something about it.” RP6 “…pretty significant. I would need to know whether it’s [BFRs] really harmful [to change lifestyle]…” RP3 “Well he [the healthcare professional] should be fairly certain that there’s a fairly high risk, but even if it’s [BFRs] a lower risk he should mention it if he knows you’re exposed to it.” RP20 “If they’re not sure then I don’t want to know [about the potential risks of BFRs]. Especially if like every day, like TVs, computers…I’m in front of the computer every day, all day; kitchen appliances, well I need to cook…and carpets…even if they were sure, how would you, how do you avoid that?” RP18 “…I would say only if you know that it’s really going to hurt people [BFRs], I would think yes it should be a warning, but, you don’t want to alarm a whole bunch of people if you’re not really sure yet.” RP3 |
IIE: Safer Alternatives | “…they [the government] would have to come up with some sort of alternative…that is safe…” RP8 “They [the government] should be funding the research for alternatives. I can’t say that they should be doing the research themselves, or making them themselves, but, funding for the researchers to do it.” RP10 “…smoke detectors…keeping matches away from small children…there are other alternatives to having all the flame retardants sprayed on.” RP7 |