Legacy and novel flame retardants from indoor dust in Antarctica: sources and human exposure

The air humidity in Antarctica is very low and this peculiar weather parameter make the use of flame retardants in research facilities highly needed for safety reasons, as fires are a major risk. Legacy and novel flame retardants (nFRs) including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), 1,2-bis(2,4,6- tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE), Dechlorane Plus (DP), and other nFRs were measured in indoor dust sam-ples collected at research Stations in Antarctica: Gabriel de Castilla, Spain (GCS), Julio Escudero, Chile (JES), and onboard the RRS James Clark Ross, United Kingdom (RRS JCR). The GC-HRMS and LC-MS-MS analyses of dust samples revealed 117PBDEs of 41.5 \ub143.8 ng/g in rooms at GCS, 18.7 \ub111.6 ng/g at JES, and 27.2 \ub137.9 ng/g onboard the RRS JCR. PBDE pattern was different between the sites and most abundant congeners were BDE-183 (40%) at GCS, BDE-99 (50%) at JES, and BDE-153 (37%) onboard the RRS JCR. The 11(4)HBCDs were 257 \ub1407 ng/g, 14.9 \ub114.5 ng/g, and 761 \ub11043 ng/g in indoor dust collected in rooms at GCS, JES, and RRS JCR, respectively. The 119nFRs were 224 \ub1178 ng/g at GCS, 14.1 \ub113.8 ng/g at JES, and 194 \ub1392 ng/g on the RRS JCR. Syn- and anti-DP were detected in most of the samples and both isomers showed the highest concentrations at GCS: 163 \ub193.6 and 48.5 \ub161.1 ng/g, respectively. The laboratory and living room showed the highest concentration of HBCDs, DPs, BTBPE. The wide variations in FR levels in dust from the three research facilities and between differently used rooms reflect the different origin of furnishing, building materials and equipment. The potential health risk associated to a daily exposure via dust ingestion was assessed for selected FRs: BDEs 47, 99, and 153, \u3b1-, \u3b2-, and \u3b3-HBCD, BTBPE, syn- and anti-DP. Although the estimated exposures are below the available reference doses, caution is needed given the expected increasing use of novel chemicals without a comprehensive toxicological profile

Identifying gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: Contemporary challenges for integrated, large-scale investigations

Recent years have seen considerable progress in epidemiological and molecular genetic research into environmental and genetic factors in schizophrenia, but methodological uncertainties remain with regard to validating environmental exposures, and the population risk conferred by individual molecular genetic variants is small. There are now also a limited number of studies that have investigated molecular genetic candidate gene-environment interactions (G 7 E), however, so far, thorough replication of findings is rare and G 7 E research still faces several conceptual and methodological challenges. In this article, we aim to review these recent developments and illustrate how integrated, large-scale investigations may overcome contemporary challenges in G 7 E research, drawing on the example of a large, international, multi-center study into the identification and translational application of G 7 E in schizophrenia. While such investigations are now well underway, new challenges emerge for G 7 E research from late-breaking evidence that genetic variation and environmental exposures are, to a significant degree, shared across a range of psychiatric disorders, with potential overlap in phenotype. \ua9 2014 The Author

Pre-training inter-rater reliability of clinical instruments in an international psychosis research project

[no abstract available