Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON DC:
A recent study suggests that eating one freshwater fish caught in a river or lake in the US is the same as drinking water contaminated with toxic “forever chemicals” for a month.
The PFAS, invisible chemicals, were first created in the 1940s to tolerate heat and moisture and are now used in non-stick cookware, clothing, food packaging, and firefighting foams. But the indestructibility of PFAS, polyfluoroalkyl substances, and per means the pollutants have built up over time in the soil, air, rivers, lakes, drinking water, food, and even in our bodies.
The growing concerns have been calling for stricter regulation of PFAS, which have been linked to various severe health issues, including high cholesterol, liver damage, several cancers, and reduced immune responses.
Contamination in locally caught fish
A team of researchers to find out PFAS contamination in locally caught fish analyzed more than 500 samples from lakes and rivers around the United States between 2013 and 2015.
Published in the journal Environmental Research, the new study found that the median level of PFAS in fish was 9,500 nanograms per kilogram.
One of the most prominent and dangerous of the hundreds of PFAS, PFOS, made up nearly three-quarters of the discovered “forever chemicals.” The researchers concluded that consuming one freshwater fish would be equivalent to drinking water with 48 parts per trillion PFOS per month.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency U.S. lowered the level of PFOS in drinking water and declared it safe to 0.02 parts per trillion. The study said that the total PFAS level in freshwater fish was 278 times higher than that in commercially sold fish.
