I can’t believe it’s in butter!

How do you like your butter? With, or without flame retardant?

When researchers at the University of Texas conducted a small study to test contaminants in food, they bought a stick of butter at a Dallas grocery store and put it to the test.

They weren’t specifically looking for the flame retardant known as PBDE, but they found it.

Lead researcher Arnold Schecter told CNN, “Flame retardants were not made to be eaten. They’re made to slow down the smoke in fires. They’re not a food component. They don’t belong there.”

That’s the good news, I guess.

The bad news: According to Sonya Lunder, an analyst with the Environmental Working Group, about 19 out of 20 people in the U.S. have flame retardant chemicals in their bodies.

Lunder: “There is a bulk of fire retardants out there in our environment, and that is generally yucky.”

Agreed!

But here’s the worst: Animal studies have linked PBDEs with liver cancer and neurobehavioral problems. Which goes way beyond “yucky” in my book.

Source:
“Study: Flame retardant found in small butter sample” John Bonifield, CNN, 12/7/10, pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com