Scientific Obervation: Do You!?,Pollutants found in fish we eat can compromise body’s defences

Pollution may taint some of our favourite foods

Ocean pollutants that may contaminate our food are able to tamper with the body’s ability to cope with toxins. The finding makes it more urgent to know how the pollutants act, especially as they are often found in combination.

Amro Hamdoun and Sascha Nicklisch at the University of California at San Diego and colleagues studied 37 organic pollutants and their effect on P-gp, a cell-membrane protein that recognises harmful molecules and boots them out.

In experiments on yeast cells expressing the mouse P-gp protein, 16 of the pollutants stopped it from working. Ten of these chemicals have been found in humans, implying they are in the food chain.

One of these is the pesticide DDT, which was banned by an international treaty in 2001. Others include chemicals used as industrial flame retardants.

The team looked for those 10 chemicals in yellowfin tuna, which are among the most widely eaten fish in the world. Nine were found in tuna from the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes at relatively high levels.

“P-gp is incredibly important for eliminating a wide range of drugs and toxins,” says Hamdoun. “These widespread pollutants can inhibit this defence system.”

Newborn babies may be among the most vulnerable to the toxic chemicals, since organic pollutants reach high concentrations in breast milk and infants have low levels of P-gp in their cells.

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