Michigan health officials have updated their guidelines on toxic "forever chemicals" in fish, tripling the number of lakes and rivers, where anglers are advised to not eat their catch.
Ninety-eight waterbodies across Michigan now have a "do not eat" warning for one PFAS compound in fish. This comes after the state adjusted its advisories for how much PFOS is safe in a given serving, lowering the recommended consumption limits.
Marcus Wasilevich is the toxicology and assessment section manager with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. He said the previous limits were set around 11 years ago.
"So as more studies came out, we realized, we as in the scientific community, we realized that PFOS is more toxic than we thought it was," Wasilevich said.
Wasilevich said the updated "conservative" guidelines also account for other sources of contaminants like drinking water over long term periods of exposure.
"We took that into consideration and lowered (the limits), made them a little more restrictive, saying not all PFOS are coming from your fish, you're probably having background exposure," he said.
The MDDHS Eat Safe Fish guide includes recommendations on seven groups of contaminants for specific fish species in over 600 lakes and rivers across the state.
Although the state tests fish for roughly 40 PFAS compounds, only PFOS compound has consumption guidelines. Wasilevich said as more research comes out, more PFAS chemicals could be included or advisories could get stricter.
![Kevin Cox [left] and Mike McCauley [right] slice brook trout into filets as part of the state fish contaminant monitoring program April 21 at an EGLE facility in Lansing.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a8fb223/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5603x3122+0+307/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffb%2F2d%2F72e0a6f44220bda9335a589e3785%2Fmicrosoftteams-image-3.png)