Several types of chemicals are added to resins for enhancement of their physicochemical properties. Among added chemicals, halogenated flame retardants (FRs) including tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) were major additives. Recently, Dechlorane Plus (DP), that was used in commercial applications, has been paid attention as not only FRs but also environmental pollutants, though few information of DP are available. Consequently, we prepared resin samples [acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC) resins] containing DP at 500 mg/kg as plastic disks, and evaluated the change in concentration of DP on the disks exposed by accelerated weathering tests which were performed in accordance with the JIS K7350-2. As a result of the weathering tests assumed to be similar to the sunlight exposure of approximately half a year, the concentration of DP in ABS resin decreased approximately 10 % despite the fact that the concentration of DP in PC resin did not change. On the other hand, the concentration of TBBPA added to the disks as a reference changed and decreased approximately 30 to 40 % in both resins. For element analyses, there were no significant differences in chlorine concentration based on DP and bromine concentration based on TBBPA between original and weathered resins. Therefore, it seemed that DP, TBBPA, and occurred degradation products did stay in the disks in spite of performing the weathering tests. From the results in this study, a possibility of release to the environment on DP and TBBPA in resins may be not considerable, while it is necessary to perform additional studies in order to evaluate the possibilities of elution to the hydrosphere of fine particles of the resin and of release to the atmospheric environment by incineration processes.
