Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Fish Consumption in the Great Lakes Fish Consumer Study

Presented on April 27, 2022, by Meghan Cerpa - University of Illinois at Chicago - at the 2022 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference (ECEC22)

A major source of exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is thought to be consumption of seafood from contaminated waters. We assessed associations of serum PFAS levels with fish meals in a cohort of frequent and infrequent Great Lakes (GL) sport fish consumers. Participants reported number of fish meals eaten in the past year caught from a GL and those purchased commercially. Eleven PFASs were measured in 473 stored serum samples. Log-transformed PFAS were regressed on fish meals, adjusting for age, BMI, sex, and education. Mean age was 57.9 years and BMI was 29.6 kg/m2; 70% male; 70% completed at least some college. Median GL sport fish was 10 (IQR=0, 30) and commercial fish was 15 (IQR=4, 52) meals/year. Increases of 5 GL sport fish meals/year was significantly (p less than 0.05) associated with increases in serum levels of several PFASs: PFUnDA (4.1%), PFDA (3.8%), n-PFOS (3.7%), PFNA (2.7%), PFHpS and sm-PFOS (1.5%), PFHxS and MeFOSAA (1%). Increases in serum PFAS levels for an increase of 5 purchased fish meals/year were smaller (range 0.6%-1.0%). Significant increases in serum concentrations of several PFAS were seen for both GL and commercial fish meals with larger increases for GL than commercial fish meals.

Download slides: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/114120