A harmonized, traceable dataset of brominated flame retardant occurrence across products and material streams

Description

The dataset compiles evidence on brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in food products, consumer products, and product-derived waste or recycled materials. It draws on 177 peer-reviewed publications published between 2004 and 2025 and retrieved from PubMed and the Web of Science Core Collection. This release comprises three CSV files: data.csv contains 6,239 curated records under 59 record-level fields; sources.csv provides 15 publication-level fields for 177 publications; and data_dictionary.csv describes the fields in both tables. Each record includes an evidence location and a traceability note. Removing the final underscore and sequence number from record_id yields the corresponding paper_id in sources.csv. The dataset covers 111 canonical analyte/group labels and 28 ISO2-coded sampling countries or territories, alongside multi-country, regional and geographically unspecified records. It includes legacy and novel BFRs, such as PBDEs, HBCDD, TBBPA and DBDPE. Individual analytes and source-defined sums are distinguished through pollutant identity fields and sum definitions. Concentration units are harmonized to ng/g for mass-based records and ng/L for volume-based records. Original values, units and reported measurement bases are retained. Wet weight, dry weight, lipid weight and product/material mass are not treated as interchangeable. Product classifications use the United Nations Central Product Classification (CPC), version 3, where an applicable classification can be assigned. The dataset is intended to support exposure assessment, product and material life-cycle screening, regulatory prioritization and cross-study comparisons. For primary occurrence analyses, users should first select analysis_scope = occurrence_record. Records classified as boundary_evidence or source_conflict require separate interpretation. Users should additionally consider statistic_type, detect_status, qualifier, basis_class, sum_definition, quality_flags and traceability information before aggregation, because the source studies differ in sampling design, reporting basis, summed-analyte composition and metadata completeness.

Institutions

• Beijing Information Science & Technology University

  Beijing, Beijing
• Beijing Institute of Technology

  Beijing, Beijing
• Institute of Urban Environment

  Fujian, Xiamen

Categories

Licence