BY JOHN RICHARDSON

Portland Press Herald

Flame-retardant chemicals banned in Maine because of emerging public health fears have shown up in sediment or shellfish in all U.S. coastal waters, including in mussels collected along the Maine coast, according to a new federal report.

Maine was among the first states to restrict the sale of consumer products containing polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, over the past five years. The compounds now are banned or are being phased out in many parts of the world amid growing evidence that they are building up in the environment.

Laboratory tests have shown them to be toxic to animals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, released a report Wednesday saying that PBDEs have spread to all U.S. coastal waters from only a limited number of areas a decade earlier. Levels of contamination are highest around urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles, but the chemicals also are present in remote and relatively pristine areas, including along the coasts of Maine and Alaska.

"This is a wake-up call for Americans concerned about the health of our coastal waters and their personal health," John H. Dunnigan, NOAA assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service, said in the agency's written announcement. "Scientific evidence strongly documents that these contaminants impact the food web, and action is needed to reduce the threats posed to aquatic resources and human health."

Mussels collected from three sites along the Maine coast -- Kennebunkport, Harpswell and Sears Island -- contained low to medium levels of the chemicals, according to NOAA.

However, experts stressed that the presence of the chemicals does not mean that shellfish are unsafe to eat.

PBDEs also have been found in other foods, including fatty meats and dairy products, and in household dust, which is believed to be the biggest source of exposure for people.

Scientists also are not exactly sure yet what effects, if any, the chemicals might be having on humans, or how much exposure could cause health problems.

"I certainly wouldn't, on the basis of this data, get alarmed about people eating mussels or eating shellfish. The stuff is all over our houses and in all the other foods you eat," said Deborah Rice, a Maine state toxicologist who has studied the health effects of PBDEs.

"We already know that they're in the food supply," agreed Michael Belliveau, executive director of the Bangor-based Environmental Health Strategy Center. "It's one additional piece of evidence that the food web has been badly contaminated by these chemicals."

NOAA looked at sediments and shellfish because both tend to capture whatever contaminants are in the water. Samples collected in 1996 showed the presence of PBDEs in a small number of areas, while samples collected in 2006 showed the chemicals virtually everywhere.

The NOAA study was the first to look at coastal waters. Studies in Maine and elsewhere have found the chemicals in human blood and breast milk, dust, wild bird eggs and seal blubber, among other things.

PBDEs are long-lasting, man-made toxic chemicals that have been used since the 1970s as flame retardants in a variety of consumer products, including building materials, electronics, furnishings, motor vehicles, plastics, polyurethane foams and textiles.

A growing body of research points to evidence that exposure to PBDEs might cause damaging health effects, according to NOAA and other scientists. Studies indicate that liver, thyroid and neurobehavioral development could be harmed by exposure to PBDEs, and that babies, who can ingest the chemicals in breast milk or in household dust, are most susceptible.

Representatives for a group of companies that make the chemicals could not be reached. The trade group Bromine Science and Environmental Forum opposed recent restrictions in Maine and elsewhere by arguing that some common forms of the chemicals do not last in the environment as long as others, and that there was still no proof that low levels of exposure present a health threat.

Belliveau, of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, said the report shows that Maine was right to lead other states with restrictions on the chemicals. He also said it shows the need for stronger federal regulation of toxic chemicals.

"We have a broken federal safety system that allows untested and known toxic chemicals to be widely used in commerce and dispersed in the environment and in our homes and in our bodies," he said.

Maine and others states also need to do even more, he said.

"Maine has done what it can to ban new uses of the chemicals." But, he said, "there's a huge reservoir of these chemicals in old products."

Bellieveau said state officials have begun talking about a program to collect and dispose of old furniture and other products containing PBDEs. Although difficult, he said, it would be easier than trying to avoid exposure through foods or household dust.

On the Web

NOAA's report can be seen at http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/about/coast/nsandt/PBDEreport.html.