Identifying and collecting relevant literature related to the toxicity of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and brominated phenols

An extensive literature search to identify and collect studies related to the toxicity of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and brominated phenols (BPs) was performed in the three databases PubMed, Web of Science and SciFinder® for four Areas. After combination of the searches from the three databases and removal of the duplicates, the total number of references for Area 1 was 6,231, for Area 2 was 8,236, for Area 3 was 4,994 and for Area 4 was 6,363. The evaluation of all retrieved references for relevance by screening the title and abstract (if available) and applying eligibility criteria (inclusion/exclusion) resulted in a total number of relevant references for Area 1 of 378 (PBDEs), 46 (TBBPA) and 29 (BPs), for Area 2 of 188 (PBDEs), 37 (TBBPA) and 4 (BPs), for Area 3 of 518 (PBDEs), 180 (TBBPA) and 49 (BPs), and for Area 4 of 717 (PBDEs), 59 (TBBPA) and 18 (BPs).