During a recent expedition, Jean-Michel Cousteau and his Ocean Futures Society team discovered an alarming fact: many populations of killer whales are contaminated with toxic, synthetic chemicals known as PBDEs, or flame retardants. 

These flame retardants are in use because the State of California requires that some products be flame resistant, for example, furniture and many children's products.  It is now known that these chemicals leak into the environment through the air, are carried by dust and water and enter the food chain.  Like their banned relatives, the PCBs, flame retardants persist in the environment, concentrate over time, are toxic, with likely adverse effects on both orcas and humans, and are now found globally. Their presence in the environment is doubling every five years.