title: Legacy and emerging flame retardants (FRs) in the freshwater ecosystem: A review.
abstract: In this review article, we have compiled and reviewed the previously published available literature on environmental distribution, behaviour, fate and regional trends of legacy and emerging flame retardants (FRs) including brominated (BFRs), organo-phosphate (OPFRs), novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs) and dechlorane plus (DP) in the freshwater ecosystem. Transport and fate is discussed briefly with the evidences of de-bromination, sedimentation and accumulation in biota. De-bromination of BDE-209 is considered of concern because the lower brominated congeners are more toxic and mobile thus posing increased risk to the freshwater ecosystem. The available data on temporal and spatial trends as yet, is too few to show any consistent trends, enabling only general conclusions to be drawn. There is a lack of temporal studies in Asia, while, overall the trends are mixed, with both increasing and decreasing concentrations of BFRs and OPFRs. OPFRs and NBFRs have replaced classical BFRs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)) in some countries but the amount of PBDEs in the environment is still considerable. Knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research are discussed emphasizing on further monitoring, advanced analytical methodologies, and risk assessment studies to completely understand the science of flame retardants in the freshwater ecosystem.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mehreen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: jabirshah100@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Jabir Hussain
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Syed
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) - FRAM High North Research Centre on Climate and the Environment, Hjalmar Johansens gt. 14 NO - 9296 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katsoyiannis
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. Electronic address: r_n_malik2000@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: Riffat Naseem
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farooqi
authors.affiliation: Environmental Biology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ayesha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Butt
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Gan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff", University of Florence, via della Lastruccia, 3 - 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy; Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes, Italian National Research Council (IDPA-CNR), Dorsoduro 2137, 30123 Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cincinelli
authors.affiliation: Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D005411:Flame Retardants / Q000032:analysis*; D005618:Fresh Water; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D005411:Flame Retardants; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biota; Flame retardants; Fresh water ecosystem; Regional trends; Sediment; Transport and fate