London: Fish that contain environmental pollutants may harm people who eat them by preventing the human body from doing its natural job of flushing out toxins, researchers said.
The study in the journal Science Advances warned that newborn babies are particularly at risk as they are exposed to high concentrations of the pollutants in breast milk and their defence mechanism is not yet fully developed.
The study examined 10 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) — including the pesticide DDT and industrial chemicals such as flame retardants —found in yellowfin tuna and human blood and urine.
All 10 pollutants studied interfered with the effectiveness of a key protein in humans and animals, known as P-gp, which expels foreign chemicals from the body.
One chemical used to make flame retardants in upholstery and plastics, known as PBDE-100, was found for the first time to bind itself to the crucial protein and prevent it from doing its defensive job. “When we eat contaminated fish, we could be reducing the effectiveness of this critical defense system in our bodies,” said lead author Amro Hamdoun of the Marine Biology Research Division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Babies are particularly vulnerable to pollutants in fish — which they may ingest via breast milk even if they are not eating solid food yet — because they have low amounts of the protective P-gp protein, the study said.
