Added to furniture foam, electronics and textiles, these build up in household dust. The main fix is airing rooms and dusting, plus care with new items.
Flame retardants are chemicals added to furniture foam, mattresses, carpets, electronics and some textiles to slow ignition. Unlike most items in this audit, your main exposure is not something you eat or put on your skin; it is household dust. The chemicals migrate out of products over time, settle into dust, and are then breathed in or picked up on hands, which is why ventilation and cleaning matter so much here.
Older upholstered furniture and mattresses, foam padding, carpets, the casings of televisions and electronics, and the dust that collects in rooms that are rarely aired. New furniture, mattresses and carpets can also give off a range of chemicals and odours for the first few weeks, which is the familiar "new furniture smell".
The most studied flame retardants, the older PBDEs, have been linked in human studies to effects on thyroid hormones and, in children exposed in the womb, to neurodevelopment. Because of this, many PBDEs have been phased out, but they persist in older products and in dust, and some of the newer replacements are still being evaluated. Bodies such as the US NIEHS treat this class as a concern. The practical, evidence-friendly takeaway is that reducing house dust reduces the exposure.
Washing hands before eating also helps, since a lot of dust exposure is hand-to-mouth, and it is a good habit for several of the sources in this audit at once.
You do not need to replace your furniture. The load here is mostly about dust, so the ordinary habits of airing rooms and cleaning regularly do most of the work, and they help with indoor air quality generally.
Sources: US NIEHS, Endocrine Society (EDC scientific statements). Written by M. Videika, The Hormone Blueprint. Educational only, not a substitute for medical advice.