11 June 2020
HealthDay Reports: There's Another Benefit to Hand-Washing During Pandemic
Frequent hand-washing during the COVID-19 pandemic has an unintended side effect: research suggests it can also lower your exposure to toxic flame retardants.
There's Another Benefit to Hand-Washing During Pandemic
THURSDAY, June 11, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Washing your hands more often may do more than slow the spread of COVID-19: New research suggests it also lowers your exposure to toxic flame retardants.
How? Scientists found that halogenated flame retardants used in plastic TV cases can travel from the TV to indoor air and dust, then to hands, and then to electronic devices such as cellphones.
That means that you can be exposed to these chemicals every time you touch your cellphone, according to the study published June 9 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.