Kentucky issues advisory to limit fish consumption over potential cancer-causing chemicals

State regulators have issued an advisory for people to consider limiting how much fish they eat from lakes and rivers in Kentucky because of contamination by chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.

The state has had advisories for some time on limiting fish consumption because of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), but the new advisory is the first covering per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Tests on fish tissue from several waterways in the state found they contained PFAS chemicals, according to a release.

The EPA has not set advisory limits on eating fish as a result of PFAS contamination, but some states have had them in place for years, including Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maine and New York.

“As other states wrestle with these same issues, our agency thought it important to make these results known to the public so that they could make healthy choices when eating locally caught fish,” said Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman.

The chemicals at issue repel grease, oil and water. They’ve been used in the U.S. for decades in a wide range of products, including firefighting foam, non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpet, furniture, cosmetics, dental floss and fast-food wrappers.

There are thousands of PFAS compounds, but two of the most common are PFOS and PFOA.

The chemicals don’t break down quickly in the environment or the human body, and they can accumulate over time. As a result they’ve been called “forever chemicals.”

Concern over the chemicals has grown in recent years as studies increasingly highlighted an association between exposure to some PFAS and a range of health problems, including some types of cancer, effects on the immune, reproductive and cardivascular systems, low birth weight and thyroid disorders, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sources.

The EPA last month proposed designating PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances. The goal is to increase the government’s ability to track the substances and make companies pay to clean them up, or to use federal money for cleanup.

“This designation reinforces that PFOA and PFOS chemicals are not safe for people, fish, or wildlife,” Jennifer Hill, associate director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center, said when EPA issued the proposal, which is not yet final.

Kentucky joined the list of states with fish consumption advisories with a release on Friday.

What are the recommendations?

In a release, the state Energy and Environment Cabinet advised people to limit exposure to PFAS in fish they eat by using the same guidance that’s been in place for some time for mercury.

These are the recommendations:

For the general population, a maximum of one meal a month of predatory fish and one meal a week of bottom-feeding fish and panfish. There is no advised limit for that population on other fish.

A meal is defined as one 8-ounce serving for a 150-pound person.

For people in sensitive populations — which includes women of child-bearing age, pregnant or nursing women, women who plan to become pregnant and children age 6 and under — six meals a year of predatory fish; one meal a month from bottom feeders and panfish; and one meal a week of other fish.

Predatory fish include largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, white and striped bass and their hybrids; yellow bass; flathead and blue catfish and musky, sauger and walleye and their hybrids; bowfin; chain pickerel; and all gars.

Panfish include bluegill; crappie; rock bass; and green, longear and redear sunfish.

Bottom feeders include channel catfish; drum; carp, white, northern hog and spotted sucker; sturgeon; and creek chub.

“We believe that the mercury-based consumption guidelines that are suggested, especially for sensitive populations, are reasonable and prudent,” Goodman said.

The state Department for Environmental Protection, the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the Department for Public Health develop the consumption advisories.

The advisories for mercury and PFAS apply to all waters in the state.

There also are recommended limits for specific waterways and fish.

For instance, the state recommends limiting consumption of bottom feeders from Green River Lake, in Taylor and Adair counties, to one meal a month for the general population and six meals a year for people in sensitive groups because of mercury, which can cause cause and PCBs.

Exposure to mercury in the womb can impair a child’s memory, attention, cognitive ability language and motor skills, while PCBs are a probable cancer-causing substance.

The new advisory limits aren’t meant to stop people from eating fish. The limits are conservative, based on long-term exposure PFAS.

The state said in its release that “high levels of PFAS exposure over a lifetime” are associated with health effects.

The guidelines are meant to provide information on how often people can reduce risk and safely eat fish, according to the state.

Consumption advisories do not affect swimming, skiing or boating in state waters.

With fishing a popular pastime in Kentucky, the advisory on limiting fish consumption could have significant impact.

“It is important to note that this study covers only a small portion of the state’s waters. The cabinet will continue to make additional information available as additional testing is done,” Goodman said in the release.

Where were fish tested?

The Department for Environmental Protection plans to continue testing fish for PFAS.

The fish tested came from Gunpowder Creek in Boone County; South Elkhorn Creek in Woodford County; West Hickman Creek in Jessamine County; Otter Creek in Meade County; a tributary of North Elkhorn Creek in Fayette County; and Northern Ditch and Southern Ditch, also known as Pond Creek, in Jefferson County between 2021 and 2022.

The department also tested tissue collected previously from these lakes: Boltz, Carnico, Cave Run, Cedar Creek, Elmer Davis, Fagan Branch, Guist Creek, Herrington, Liberty City, Sand Creek Shanty Hollow South, and from W FK Drakes Reservoir, according to the release.

But with a wide range of potential ways for PFAS to get into the environment, it’s likely fish in other waterways will have at least some level of the chemicals as well.

The samples of fish tissue showed levels of PFOS at ranging from .31 to 50 parts per billion.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but consider that EPA issued a health advisory in June with strikingly low lifetime exposure limits in drinking water of .004 parts per trillion for PFOA and .02 parts per trillion for PFOS.

The agency said in its June advisory that recent studies showed “negative health effects” from PFAS could occur at much lower exposure levels than regulators thought just a few years ago.

The testing that led to the new PFAS advisory on fish consumption in Kentucky came as part of the state’s effort to figure out the the extent of PFAS contamination in the state, which has been on-going for some time.

In 2019, the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection analyzed water samples from 81 treatment plants — as a representative sample of more than 200 plants in the state — to get a better picture of PFAS contamination.

At the time, EPA’s advisory limit on PFOA and PFOS, was a lifetime exposure of 70 parts per trillion (ppt).

The testing detected PFAS in the source water at 41 of the 81 Kentucky treatment plants, but none had a level anywhere close to 70. Only 3 percent measured above 5 parts per trillion.

The highest level detected during the study was 29.7 ppt at a plant at South Shore, in Greenup County.

Plants that used the Ohio River as a source of raw water had the highest number of detections, followed by plants that draw from the Kentucky River.

The 2019 tests found PFAS at water plants serving Lexington, though all were below 5 ppt, the study showed.

The federal government is expected to propose lower mandatory limits on PFAS in drinking water.

Kentucky conducted more PFAS sampling at 40 surface water stations in 2020 and found PFAS chemicals at 36. The highest concentration was 249 parts per trillion in Christian County, according to the report.