Eating one freshwater fish caught in a river or lake in the United States is equivalent to drinking water contaminated with toxic “forever chemicals,” according to new research Tuesday.
The invisible chemicals, called PFASs, were first developed in the 1940s to withstand water and heat and are now used in items such as non-stick pans, textiles, fire-fighting foam and food packaging.
But the indestructibility of PFAS, the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, means that the pollutants have accumulated over time in our air, soil, lakes, rivers, food, drinking water and even our bodies.
There are growing calls for stricter regulation of PFAS, which have been linked to a number of serious health problems, including liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune response and several types of cancer.
To detect PFAS contamination in locally caught fish, a team of researchers analyzed more than 500 samples from rivers and lakes in the United States between 2013 and 2015.
The average level of PFAS in fish is 9,500 nanograms per kilogram, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research.
Nearly three-quarters of the “forever chemicals” detected are PFOS, one of the most common and dangerous of the thousands of PFAS.
Eating just one freshwater fish is equivalent to drinking water with 48 parts per trillion of PFOS for one month, the researchers calculated.
Last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency lowered the level of PFOS in drinking water it considers safe to 0.02 parts per trillion.
The total level of PFAS in freshwater fish was 278 times higher than that found in commercial fish, the study said.
– “The Greatest Chemical Threat” –
David Andrews, senior scientist at the non-profit Environmental Working Group, which led the research, told AFP he grew up catching and eating fish.
“I can no longer look at fish without thinking about PFAS contamination,” said Andrews, one of the study’s authors.
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The findings are “particularly concerning because of the impact on disadvantaged communities who consume fish as a source of protein or for social or cultural reasons,” he added.
“This research makes me extremely angry because the companies that produced and used PFAS polluted the globe and were not held accountable.”
Patrick Byrne, an environmental pollution researcher at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK who was not involved in the research, said PFASs are “probably the greatest chemical threat facing the human race in the 21st century”.
“This study is important because it provides the first evidence of widespread transfer of PFAS directly from fish to humans,” he told AFP.
Andrews called for much stricter regulations to end all non-essential uses of PFAS.
The study comes after Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden submitted a proposal to ban PFAS to the EU’s European Chemicals Agency on Friday.
The proposal, “one of the broadest in the EU’s history”, comes after the five countries found that PFAS were not adequately controlled and regulation across the bloc was needed, the agency said in a statement.
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