A Do Not Eat advisory has been placed on all fish species in the Wissahickon Creek Basin, which spans Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
A CBS News Philadelphia report noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Health Department, and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) issued the advisory on Wednesday, Oct. 7, after tissue tests on fish samples retrieved from the waterway revealed high levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) above 0.04 parts per million (ppm).
PFOS is one of a complex of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemical substances (PFAS) that can accumulate in fish tissue, according to the DEP. These compounds are also called “forever chemicals” because they build up in animal and fish blood and degrade very slowly over time…