New report from an environmental NGO | A “stunning” number of species contaminated by perfluorides

Wildlife is contaminated with perfluorines on a large scale, shows a new American analysis. The authors of the report calculated that the amount of perfluorides in a freshwater fish is equivalent to a month’s worth of tap water.

“It is staggering to see the number of species where high levels of contamination have been observed,” explains one of the authors of the report from the American NGO Environmental Working Group (EWG), David Andrews.

“We’re talking about 10,000 parts per trillion for freshwater fish in North America. This means that eating a fish is equivalent to a month of drinking water consumption according to current standards. For large predators like the eagle or the dolphin, it is even higher. »

Perfluorins are molecules that have been used since the 1950s as stain and anti-adhesive agents, for example in Teflon, as well as in military and airport fire-fighting foams.

Their durability is their main asset, but means that they do not degrade and accumulate in the environment and the body. This gives them carcinogenic potential and interferes with the immune system.

EWG’s report has produced a global map of where contamination in wildlife has been measured. Thousands of studies have been listed on a total of 330 species.

Undercounted in Canada

There are few species of Canada on EWG’s world map: wolves, caribou, polar bears, beluga whales and a West Coast bird called the Ancient Murrelet.

“Canada is lagging behind in the study of perfluorides in the environment,” explains Marc-André Verner, a toxicologist from the University of Montreal who, last year, collaborated on a report by the Academies of Sciences of the United States. United on perfluorinated. “We have very few contaminated sites identified in Canada, for example. »

The federal inventory of contaminated sites, managed by the Treasury Board on the basis of reports from various departments, includes 42 sites contaminated with perfluorides, including six in Quebec, all airports. Elsewhere in the country, sites have been identified near military bases.

By comparison, EWG last year identified contamination at 2,900 sites in the United States. And a study from Northeastern University, published last fall in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, estimated the number of perfluoride-contaminated sites in the United States at 58,000.

Humans also infected

The paucity of data in Canada also extends to population surveillance.

“In Canada, we have national data on the presence of perfluorides in the blood of the population, but in the United States, we have data on more vulnerable subpopulations, for example those who live near known contaminated sites” , says Mr. Verner.

These population data show that the blood level of the few perfluorinated people who have been banned has been decreasing for the past ten years, according to Mr. Andrews of EWG.

“It means that if the government acts with determination, we can tackle the problem of perfluorines. Health Canada is also seeing such a drop.