Flame retardant chemicals are present in a large number of preschools and daycare centers across the United States, a new study led by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley has said. The report also suggests that these hazardous chemicals are known health risks and called for new measures to be taken to ensure the safety of children.

The study, published in the journal Chemosphere was supported by the California Air Resources Board and says that while children can be spending up to 50 hours weekly at the daycare center, the use of flame retardants should be re-examined for use around youth.

It looked specifically at some 40 local Oakland, California, centers in Alameda and Monterey counties, respectively.

According to the study, the researches took air and floor samples when the children were at the location and tested them for 14 different polybrominated diphenyl ethers and other compounds. The results were startling.

"These findings underscore how widespread these materials are in indoor environments," said Asa Bradman, of UC Berkeley's Center for Children's Environmental Health Research at UC Berkeley who is also the lead author of the study.

She said that recent research shows connections between such flame retardants and a number of human health issues, most notably in neurodevelopmental delays in youth. She argues that society must be more aware and careful over what chemicals that are environmental "contaminants" are in areas where children are found.

Although they worry about the flame retardants in dust, the researchers did point to positive results that showed chemical levels as a whole in air samples were generally on the low side in comparison to average homes.

California has been working hard to reduce and end the use of known hazardous chemicals and flame retardants, especially in daycare centers, but the efforts have been hard due to the lack of oversight.

Many of the chemicals being tested for have been known since the 1970s to be carcinogens and the continued research aims at helping to get companies to reduce and end the use of these chemicals in children's clothing and household cleaners and fabrics.

Bradman also warned that the same chemicals being used today are the same ones that she was seeing during her high school years more than three decades earlier.

"They were never banned. There seems to have been a resurgence in recent years as manufacturers looked for PBDE replacements."