Toxic Transformers Briefing: The hazards of brominated and chlorinated substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
Executive summary: This briefing summarises a recent report from Greenpeace that pulls together evidence demonstrating the human health and environmental impacts of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that contain brominated and chlorinated substances, with particular focus on the end-of-life (EOL) phase. Banning individual brominated flame retardants (BFRs) on a substance-by-substance basis will not sufficiently address the concern that all BFRs can produce dioxins, including currently unrestricted ’emerging’ BFRs, many of which are increasingly being detected as environmental contaminants. Furthermore, another pathway of dioxin transformation remains largely overlooked by policy making- the formation of mixed dioxins from both chlorinated and brominated precursors.