Research results that eating one wild freshwater fish in the United States ingests the same amount of chemicals as drinking one month's worth of contaminated water



Eating one freshwater fish caught in American rivers and lakes ingests the same amount of chemicals as drinking a month's worth of water contaminated with toxic chemicals, according to a study by American Duke. It was announced by a research team led by Nadia Babo at the university.

Locally caught freshwater fish across the United States are likely a significant source of exposure to PFOS and other perfluorinated compounds - ScienceDirect

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.115165



Eating one fish from US lakes or rivers liked to drinking month's worth of contaminated water - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pfas-forever-chemicals-one-fish-us-lakes-rivers-month-contaminated-water/

Products such as frying pan coatings, fire extinguishing agents, and food wrapping paper use perfluoroalkyl compounds and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), which are water and oil repellent, and are resistant to heat and chemicals. .

However, PFAS is extremely difficult to degrade biologically and chemically and remains in the environment for decades, so it is called an 'eternal chemical'. Such PFAS gradually accumulates in the human body through food and drinking water, and is said to cause serious health problems such as liver damage, high cholesterol, weakened immune function, and several types of cancer. We sought.

From 2013 to 2015, Babo et al.'s research team caught more than 500 freshwater fish in rivers and lakes across the United States and investigated the level of PFAS contamination.

The study found that the median PFAS was 9500 nanograms per kilogram of freshwater fish. The image below is a graph showing the breakdown of detected PFAS. About three-quarters of the PFASs detected were perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), the most dangerous.



According to the research team, the amount of PFOS ingested by eating one freshwater fish is equivalent to a month's worth of contaminated drinking water. The research team also reported that the total PFAS contamination level in wild freshwater fish was about 278 times higher than the PFAS level in farmed fish tested by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

``This result raises concerns about the impact on communities that consume fish as a means of protein intake or for social and cultural factors,'' said David Andrews of the research team. He also pointed out that ``companies that produce and use PFAS are polluting the earth and have not been held accountable,'' he said. I'm looking for

Patrick Byrne of Liverpool John Moores University in England points out that PFAS is 'probably the greatest scientific threat facing humanity in the 21st century.' ``This study is very important because it can be evidence that PFAS has moved directly from fish to humans,'' he said.

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