Rockefeller, Munro say PBDE toxins are a threat to Puget Sound and its people.

Sound + vision: This is the fifth installment in a seven-part series examining Gov. Chris Gregoire’s initiative and local efforts to protect Puget Sound. Saturday: Eagle Harbor.

What once made Ralph Munro a hero is now one of his greatest adversaries.

“It’s ironic, because I helped create the stuff,” said the island-native and former secretary of state. “Now it’s a tremendous detriment to our health and to Puget Sound.”

Munro, like many in Puget Sound, has had a change of heart about polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, a common flame retardant now considered highly toxic and extremely pervasive in the Puget Sound region.

The chemical is increasingly found in salmon, orca whales, harbor seals – even human breast milk and household dust.

Research indicates that PBDEs may cause liver toxicity, thyroid ailments and hamper neurological development.

“Back in the 1970s, we were leading the charge in the (state) Legislature to get it in children’s sleepware,” said Munro, a Republican and key player in state politics until he retired in 2001. “We were proclaimed as heroes and recognized around the world as leaders for taking this step to save little babies’ lives.

“We had no idea that, 40 years later, we’d find that we’ve created a pretty big mess.”

PBDE levels have soared since the 1980s, after the chemical was incorporated into many common products including furniture, mattresses, televisions, computer screens and other electronic products.

With hindsight on his side, Sen. Phil Rockefeller hopes to use state government to right what he sees as a 40-year-old wrong.

The Bainbridge Island Democrat is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban the “deca-BDE” form of the chemical. Two other forms – penta and octa – are already prohibited in nine U.S. states, including Washington.

According to Rockefeller, PBDEs are overtaking PCBs as the region’s most dangerous industrial contaminant.

Like PCBs, PBDEs persist for years in the environment, often contaminating multiple organisms as it climbs up and down the food chain. While PCBs persist, their manufacture was banned in the 1970s. PBDE levels, on the other hand, continue to grow in soil, waterways, animals and humans.

“The levels of PBDEs are doubling every four years in Puget Sound,” said Rockefeller, who plans argue for the ban on the Senate floor this week. “We’re seeing levels rise in harbor seals, orcas and in our communities. It’s a risk to public health and the environment in Puget Sound. And Bainbridge is right at the heart of it.”

An analysis of harbor seals between 1984 and 2003 revealed that PBDE concentrations in Puget Sound harbor seals increased from 15 to 1064 micrograms of pollutant per kilogram of fat – a meteoric increase of 1500 percent, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Scientists say seals are getting their largest dose of PBDEs through their diet – an indication the chemical is likely moving up the food chain.

According to the EPA, harbor seal prey netted in the sound show five times the levels of PBDE contamination as fish and other organisms caught off the Straight of Georgia near British Columbia.

Especially alarming for Munro is PBDE’s toxic effect on the sound’s resident orca whales.

Munro helped lead efforts that earned the whale federal Endangered Species Act status in 2005.

“Orcas are one of the best indicators of concentrations, and they’re seeing a lot of that toxic stuff in them,” said Munro, who frequently sighted the whales off the island’s shores as a child.

PBDE concentration levels in Northwest orcas were 2 to 10 times greater than in other whales, according to a study conducted by a team of British Columbia scientists.

The chemical has already made its way to the top of the food chain, with numerous tests finding PBDEs in human bodies and homes.

PBDEs were found in the breast milk of mothers living in the Northwest at rates 20 to 40 times higher than those measured in Sweden and Japan, according to the EPA. Another nationwide study found PBDEs in the umbilical cord blood of newborns.

Another recent study, also cited by the EPA, indicates high levels of PBDEs in common household dust. Varieties of the compound comprised 90 percent of the makeup, by weight, of the study’s samples. The deca form was found in about 42 percent of the samples.

These studies, as well as numerous others characterizing PBDEs as one of the region’s most prolific and toxic chemicals, were cited by the Puget Sound Partnership in its recommendation for a state-wide ban.

Rockefeller, one of the partnership’s members, said tackling the toxin is becoming a state priority thanks to Gov. Chris Gregoire endorsement of the ban and her proposal to spend $54.7 million to clean up and prevent toxic pollution in the sound.

A ban on the deca form of PBDE would follow close on the heels of a similar European Union prohibition. As of July, the EU bars the manufacturing and sale of electronics made with the chemical.

The European ban gives hope for toxics specialists opposing PBDEs.

“The handwriting is on the wall for deca,” said Laurie Valeriano, a policy specialist for the Washington Toxics Coalition. “The decision by the (EU) to ban certain products made with deca sends a signal to electronics manufacturers across the globe, as well as Washington state legislators.”

The proposed ban is not without its opponents. Some business leaders contend that the deca form of PBDEs has a relatively low toxicity and that a ban is unnecessary as some manufacturers, such as Dell Computers and Apple Inc., have voluntarily stopped using the chemical.

The Washington Fire Commissioners Association, in recent testimony to the Senate, warned that a ban could establish a gap in fire safety protection. But the Washington Association of Fire Chiefs have joined environmental and public health organizations in urging for less-toxic fire prevention alternatives.

Rockefeller said the ban would require a fire safety standards review and an exploration of alternatives to PBDEs.

For Munro, the ban is a way to right an old wrong.

“We thought we were pretty smart back then, when we introduced (PBDEs),” he said. “Turns out, maybe we weren’t so smart. Now, like everything, that stuff’s draining into Puget Sound. It’s like our sink, and cleaning the sink is the worst job at home. But it’s our home and we’ve got to find a way to clean it.”

**************************************************************

Sound + vision

This is the fifth installment in a seven-part series examining Gov. Chris Gregoire’s initiative and local efforts to protect Puget Sound. Saturday: Eagle Harbor.