Op-ed: Time To Take Action To Protect People From PFAS Contaminated Fish
The EPA and the states have years of data showing that PFAS contamination of our nation’s waters poses serious public health threats.
March 10, 2023 | Source: Environmental Health News | by Betsy Southerland
The federal Clean Water Act was established by Congress in 1972 to ensure that the nation’s waters would be “fishable and swimmable.”
Today, more than 50 years later, that goal is unachievable because of unregulated discharges of toxic PFAS chemicals into rivers, lakes and streams. These hazardous chemicals have contaminated freshwater fish in waters throughout the continental 48 states. It’s past time to regulate PFAS to protect the health of everyone who drinks water and consumes fish from contaminated waters.
PFAS-contaminated freshwater fish
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is a class of more than 9,000 chemicals with strong carbon-fluorine bonds that make them highly persistent in the environment. They are used in hundreds of industrial and consumer products that ultimately result in releases into the environment from manufacturing facilities, municipal landfills, wastewater treatment plants, airports and other sites where PFAS-containing fire-fighting foams have been used. The adverse health effects of the PFAS chemicals studied to-date include immune system suppression, increased risk of cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and reproductive and developmental impairments.