Brominated Flame Retardants vs Partially Hydrogenated Oils: which is worse?

What is Brominated Flame Retardants?

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a class of synthetic chemicals added to consumer products and materials to reduce flammability. They include polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), and others. While not direct food additives, they contaminate the food supply through environmental pathways and food packaging.

What is Partially Hydrogenated Oils?

Partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) are vegetable oils that have been treated with hydrogen gas in the presence of a catalyst to make them semi-solid at room temperature. This process creates artificial trans fatty acids (trans fats) as a byproduct. They were developed in the early 20th century as a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to lard and butter.

Documented risks

Brominated Flame Retardants: PBDEs and other BFRs are endocrine disruptors, neurodevelopmental toxicants, and probable carcinogens. They accumulate in human adipose tissue, breast milk, and blood. PBDEs were found in 100% of samples in multiple US population biomonitoring studies. US women have PBDE body burdens 10-100 times higher than European women, reflecting the US's historically heavy PBDE use before bans. Neurodevelopmental effects: multiple studies have associated prenatal PBDE exposure with lower IQ, attention deficits, and behavioral problems in children. A 2012 Environmental Health Perspectives study found inverse associations between PBDE cord blood levels and child IQ and behavioral outcomes. Thyroid disruption: BFRs structurally mimic thyroid hormones and compete with thyroid hormone binding proteins, disrupting the thyroid axis — critical for fetal brain development. Carcinogenicity: some PBDEs are associated with thyroid cancer risk in human studies. PBDEs enter the food supply primarily through fatty fish (salmon, tuna), meat, dairy, and some contaminated produce from biosolid-amended soils.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils: Artificial trans fats (from PHOs) have the most well-established cardiovascular harm of any food ingredient ever banned. Multiple large meta-analyses have confirmed that trans fat consumption increases LDL ('bad') cholesterol, decreases HDL ('good') cholesterol, increases inflammatory markers, and significantly raises cardiovascular disease risk. The Harvard Nurses' Health Study and other landmark prospective studies in the 1990s identified trans fat as uniquely harmful — worse than saturated fat in its cardiovascular effects. A 2006 NEJM meta-analysis by Mozaffarian et al. estimated that eliminating artificial trans fats from the US diet could prevent 72,000 to 228,000 heart attacks per year and 30,000 to 100,000 coronary heart disease deaths annually. The WHO estimates that industrially produced trans fats cause over 500,000 cardiovascular deaths per year globally. The FDA revoked PHOs' GRAS status in 2015 based on this evidence, with compliance by 2018. Denmark banned artificial trans fats in 2003, the first country to do so, and observed a dramatic reduction in cardiovascular mortality in subsequent years.