And not just the tap water. Eating a fish meal out of the Mississippi in Minnesota (by 3M) will give you a month's worth of PFOS if you were just drinking contaminated tap water.
It's a real shame because the Mississippi mercury levels were finally down enough to eat fish.
The fact that we can't eat fish normally is something that all Americans should be mad as hell about. CEOs of chemical plants and their families should be forced to live within 1 mile of one of their plants. Things would get cleaned up right away.
I have a friend who loved sushi and she ate it at least once a week, if not more. Her daughter was born in the bottom 1% of size, so they took a blood test and her blood was poisoned with mercury from how much fish she consumed. She went through months of chelation therapy to bring it down, but the fact that she had to go through that is a testament to how fucked up our water is and how much we are killing the environment and ourselves.
Everyone should do this, honestly. I am currently renting, but I previously owned a home in another state. One of the first things I did after buying my previous house was a whole-home filtration system. The cost isn't that high if you already have a water softener or similar plumbed in off the mains, as the filter system itself isn't the expensive part, it's the plumbing work.
Even in cities with good water, it makes sense to filter heavily and remineralize at home. This ended up helping me in myriads of ways due to natural disasters causing boil orders, finding out about chemical spills in the area that affected water supplies, etc. No worries at my home, thanks to significant filtration.
How much is “a month’s worth” and how does that amount related to known toxicity levels?
I mean, water naturally contains toxins like arsenic and lead. We don’t fret when it’s present (its present in most water) but only when the amounts cause toxicity.
Yes. Along many fishing shorelines there are signs posted that tell you how many of each type of fish you can eat per week, depending if you are a man, woman, depending on age range.
Each state publishes them. Here is the one for Minnesota for example:
"They also take into account findings of low levels of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) in fish throughout Minnesota."
So I'm not sure how you could make a statement like "Eating a fish meal out of the Mississippi in Minnesota (by 3M) will give you a month's worth of PFOS if you were just drinking contaminated tap water."
Based on a quick search, they are probably referring to this study[0] which states “One fish serving can be equivalent to drinking water for a month at 48 ppt PFOS”.
The EWG map of PFAS in fish[1] provides some specific measurements on fish in the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
It's a real shame because the Mississippi mercury levels were finally down enough to eat fish.