"A new study by Environmental Working Group scientists finds that consumption of just a single serving of freshwater fish per year could be equal to a month of drinking water laced with the "forever chemical" PFOS at high levels that may be harmful," the EWG said in a news release.
EWG found the median amounts of "forever chemicals" known as PFAS in freshwater fish were 280 times greater than forever chemicals detected in some commercially caught and sold fish, the release also said.
"The testing data, from the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration, showed that consuming a single meal of freshwater fish could lead to similar PFAS exposure as ingesting store-bought fish every day for a year," it noted.
"People who consume freshwater fish, especially those who catch and eat fish regularly, are at risk of alarming levels of PFAS in their bodies," EWG Senior Scientist Dr. David Andrews, one of the study’s lead authors, said as quoted in the release. "Growing up, I went fishing every week and ate those fish. But now when I see fish, all I think about is PFAS contamination."
Experts said consumption of PFOS-contaminated freshwater fish can cause significant increases in peoples’ blood serum levels of the forever chemical, creating potential health risks. Even infrequent consumption of freshwater fish can raise PFOS levels in the body.
"The extent that PFAS has contaminated fish is staggering. There should be a single health protective fish consumption advisory for freshwater fish across the country," Duke University graduate student Nadia Barbo, who is a lead researcher on this project, said.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 500 samples of fish fillets collected in the United States from 2013 to 2015 while being monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Rivers and Streams Assessment and the Great Lakes Human Health Fish Fillet Tissue Study.