A new study from The Lancet has confirmed that diets heavy in seafood can increase your consumption of Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). PFASs are manufactured chemicals that have been used in everyday products since the 1950s to create non-stick cookware, make materials stain-resistant, and make firefighting foam less combustible, for example.

Because PFASs do not readily degrade in the environment, their use in commercial industries causes chemical runoff into the ground, air, and water, contaminating our food sources, such as seafood.

PFASs enter your blood from your diet, building up over time and increasing your risk of:

·      Cancerous, immune, cardiovascular, and reproductive conditions

·      Breast cancer

·      Reproductive health problems

·      Cardiometabolic disease

·      Respiratory diseases

·      Infectious diseases, such as tetanus, diphtheria, influenza, and COVID-19

Additionally, according to The Lancet study, asthma “has become an epidemic due to…exposure to chemicals, such as PFASs.” These “environmental contaminants” are “known to adversely affect the immune system,” lowering your body’s ability to fight immune attacks and increasing your risk “of clinical and infectious diseases.” As a result, PFASs may even “increase the severity of pandemics.”

PFASs Harm Sharks and Humans

PFASs are “resistant to metabolism and excretion; they biomagnify in marine food chains,” concentrating in top predators like sharks, seals, polar bears, and humans, who eat large amounts of seafood. The Lancet study found that “as a result of a subsistence diet high in marine mammal muscle” 92% of people in one tested cohort “exceeded the established immunotoxic thresholds” of PFASs and 86% “were in the most severe risk category…based on blood serum concentrations.”

PFASs are “one of the major chemical threats to wildlife and human health.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows and warns of the health and environmental risks of PFASs, such as:

·      Increased risk of prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer

·      Decreased fertility

·      High blood pressure

·      Developmental effects or delays in children

Stand Against Pollution

The Lancet found that the highest blood serum concentrations of PFASs were found in people from “the USA, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Spain, Poland, and Australia.” Scientists believe the “UN Environmental Program has an obligation to advocate for…sustainable cities and communities…responsible consumption and production…and life below water.” The study recommends “international efforts to curb PFAS pollution” to protect marine predators like sharks as well as humans from the adverse health effects of these dangerous chemicals.

PFASs are currently being allowed to permeate our food and marine systems. “If actions are not taken, contamination of the environment by persistent PFASs and other toxic chemicals will continue to threaten biodiversity” as well as the health of exposed individuals around the world. All pollution threatens planetary and human health. ~Selina Barker

‍