Researchers at the University of California, San Diego
School of Medicine have discovered a widely distributed group of marine
bacteria that produce compounds nearly identical to toxic man-made fire
retardants.
Among the chemicals produced by the ocean-dwelling microbes,
which have been found in habitats as diverse as sea grasses, marine sediments
and corals, is a potent endocrine disruptor that mimics the human body's most
active thyroid hormone.