New study raises concerns about contaminants in freshwater fish

Eating a single serving of freshwater fish is about as bad as drinking a month’s worth of water contaminated with one of the potentially harmful “forever chemicals,” a new study has found.

Researchers at the Environmental Working Group calculated that having one serving of freshwater fish per year would deliver the same level of a chemical compound known as PFOS that you’d get by drinking water laced with the substance over the course of a month. The findings came out Tuesday.

PFOS is contained in cardboard packaging, carpets and firefighting foam and has made its way into drinking water — and fish — in what one researcher called “staggering” quantities.

PFOS is part of the PFAS family, used by manufacturers since the 1940s. The indestructible compounds are implicated in a wide range of ailments, including cancer.

While use in manufacturing has been phased out in recent years, any place that uses firefighting foam is a potential source of discharge into groundwater, the Environmental Working Group said.

Freshwater fish levels of PFAS overall were 278 times higher than what has been found in commercially sold fish, the study authors found, raising environmental justice concerns. Many people fish for food rather than buy commercial.

The researchers analyzed more than 500 samples of fish fillets that the EPA collected for monitoring between 2013 and 2015. The highest levels were in the Great Lakes and in urban areas.

With News Wire Services