Swedish environmental entrepreneur says an immediate total ban on PFAS needed as a Swedish study warns Swedes to avoid eating PFAS-contaminated freshwater fish

Swedish consumers have been warned to limit eating certain types of fish to just a couple of times a year due to toxic contamination. A new Swedish Society for Nature Conservation study warns that edible fish like pikeperch from the freshwater Lake Mälaren, just west of the capital Stockholm, contain high levels of the environmental toxin PFAS.

Eurofins, a world leader in food, environment, and pharma product testing, conducted the study after being commissioned by the society to investigate how much PFAS is present in different foods, including fish.

The results led to the society's environmental toxins experts warning that children should not be fed pikeperch, prompting the founder and CEO of Blue holding Bluewater, Mr. Bengt Rittri, to call for an immediate ban on all PFAS use. Bluewater is a global leader in water purification solutions for home and professional Horeca applications and public dispensing at events, shopping malls, and elsewhere.

"The EU is currently considering banning all PFAS, and this latest report underlines it is crucial the ban is put in place as rapidly and comprehensively as possible," said Mr. Rittri, one of Sweden's foremost environmental entrepreneurs.

PFAS is a highly persistent chemical group that does not degrade and remains in the body for a long time. It has been linked to several adverse health effects, including an increased risk of cancer, a lower immune system, raised cholesterol, thyroid gland issues, and infertility.

Products containing PFAS have been made and sold for decades, despite awareness of the risks. Additionally, emergency services and the armed forces have continued to use firefighting foams containing PFAS.

The report notes that while the levels of PFAS do not exceed limit values introduced earlier this year for meat, fish, roe, and shellfish in Sweden, a person can easily consume more PFAS from various

sources in a meal than what is recommended as the maximum intake for a whole week.

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has previously found that at least 2 million Swedes had too much PFAS in their drinking water.

Further warnings about the pervasiveness of PFAS came in early 2023 from a broad PFAS mapping project by Watershed, a public-interest investigative journalism group. Their study revealed PFAS exists at high levels at thousands of sites across Europe and the UK, with PFAS found in water, soils, and sediments from a wide range of consumer products, firefighting foams, waste, and industrial processes.

Bluewater water purifiers have been shown in independently verified research to remove up to 99.99% of health-threatening PFAS chemicals such as PFOA, PFOS, PFBA, and PFBS. Dr. Ahmed Fawzy, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Bluewater who carried out the tests at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm that Eurofins verified, said Bluewater's unique second-generation SuperiorOsmosis™ technology had removed up to 99.99 percent of all the PFAS chemicals tested for, said Dr. Fawzy, which "is excellent news for anyone worried about forever chemicals in tap water."

For more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Dave Noble, Bluewater PR and communication director, at david.noble@bluewatergroup.com or +44 7785 302 694.