Calls have multiplied for stricter regulation of the use of PFASs, which are harmful to health
Eating one fish caught in United States lakes or rivers is equivalent to drinking water contaminated with the so-called “perennial” pollutants, PFAS (perfluorinated alkylated substances) for a month, according to a new study that was released today.
These chemicals were developed in the 1940s to resist water and heat. One finds them in non-stick coatings, fabrics, or food packaging.
But the fact that these PFASs do not break down means that they have accumulated over time in the air, soil and water of lakes and rivers, in food, and even in the human body.
Calls have multiplied for stricter regulation of the use of PFAS, which are harmful to health, with effects on the liver, increased cholesterol, reduced immune response and the occurrence of various types of cancer. The researchers wanted to measure the contamination of freshwater fish by analyzing 500 samples taken from 2013 to 2015 from US lakes and rivers.
The average contamination rate was 9.5 micrograms per kilogram, according to their study published in the journal Environmental Research. Of the total contaminated samples, three-quarters were PFOS, one of the most common and most harmful contaminants among the thousands that make up PFAS.
Eating one freshwater fish is equivalent to drinking water contaminated at the level of 48 parts per billion billion of PFOS for a month. Water is considered potable if it contains no more than 0.2 parts per billion of PFOS, according to the new recommendation from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The proportion of PFASs found in wild-caught freshwater fish was found to be 278 times higher than that found in commercially farmed fish.
“I can’t look at a fish anymore without thinking how PFAS-contaminated it is,” David Andrews, a scientist with the Environmental Working Group, a non-governmental organization that conducted the study, and who grew up fishing and eating fish, told AFP.
The finding is “particularly worrying because of the impact on underprivileged communities who consume fish as a protein source or for socio-cultural reasons,” he continued.
“This research makes me very angry because the societies that manufacture and use PFAS have polluted the planet without taking responsibility,” he underlined.
For Patryn Byrne, an environmental contamination researcher at Britain’s Liverpool John Moores University, PFASs are “probably the greatest chemical threat to humankind in the 21st century.”
“This study is important because it provides the first evidence of widespread transmission of PFASs directly from fish to humans,” he said.
The study is published following the initiative of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, which last Friday submitted to the European Chemicals Agency a proposal to ban PFAS.
This proposal is an extension of the five countries’ finding that the use of PFAS is not adequately controlled.
RES-EMP
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