Wisconsin cautions hunters about PFAS in ducks while Minnesota remains passive after similar findings

States like Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine have been issuing eating advisories relating to contaminants in wild game, but Minnesota — where similar results have been found — has not.

While the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) provides guidelines for eating fish, it doesn’t have enough resources to consider other game.

That’s what an MDH research scientist said this week in response to Wisconsin’s recent announcement that hunters should not eat mallards harvested in the lower portion of Green Bay because of PFAS contamination. Previously, Wisconsin issued a PFAS-related eating advisory for deer in a specific location.

“Wisconsin’s advisories for deer and waterfowl don’t change anything here in Minnesota,” said Angela Preimesberger, the health department’s fish consumption guidance program leader. “Currently there aren’t the resources to consider other wild game.”

The Minnesota health department’s stance has raised concerns at the Department of Natural Resources, where wildlife researchers in 2023 reported high levels of PFAS chemicals in mallards and deer studied at Lake Elmo Park Reserve, a 3M pollution site.

According to documents from DNR and MDH obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune, health officials in May 2023 denied a formal request from DNR for Lake Elmo duck and deer eating advisories.

Then, as now, the health department said the guidance for hunters would require more work than possible under existing staffing levels.

DNR wildlife biologist Kelsie LaSharr said in an interview that hunters have a strong desire to understand if there are health risks when consuming wild game.

LaSharr is lead author of a research paper published this month in Chemosphere, a scientific journal, that summarized findings of PFAS in whitetail deer at Lake Elmo and two other sites. A similar research paper is planned for later this year regarding high levels of PFAS found in mallards at Lake Elmo.

“We are concerned about the lack of consumption advisories or guidance, given the unknown risks for hunters,” LaSharr told the Star Tribune. “The unknown human health implication of consuming wild game with PFAS contamination is a growing issue.”

She said she’s not aware of any federal guidance and said there’s a lack of consistency between states that have released consumption advisories for hunters.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of thousands of industrial chemicals that are used to snuff out fuel fires, etch computer chips and make products nonstick or water- and grease-resistant. They were pioneered by 3M and DuPont in the last century but have built up in humans’ bodies and spread through the environment because they do not degrade naturally.

Sean Strom, Wisconsin’s fish and wildlife toxicologist, said the state “Do Not Eat” guidance on mallards harvested on lower Green Bay was issued in collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services because “there’s a long laundry list of potential impacts” associated with PFAS chemicals.

In deciding what threshold of contamination should dictate a health advisory to hunters, Strom said Wisconsin officials applied the same standard they use for fish eating advisories.

“We thought they were suitable to use for waterfowl, as well,” he said.

According to sampling results reported by both states, PFAS levels found in the muscle tissue of Lake Elmo area mallards were exceedingly higher than levels found in Green Bay’s mallards. The median PFAS level reported for the Minnesota ducks was 948 parts per billion compared with an average of a little more than 80 parts per billion for juvenile mallards sampled in lower Green Bay. Adults mallards from lower Green Bay had lower levels than juveniles.

Wisconsin state Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, said he’s not happy that Green Bay is polluted with PFAS chemicals, but he said digging into it and informing the public was the right thing to do by DNR and health officials. “We should all be in favor of protecting public health,” Wall said.

Unlike Wisconsin, MDH says fish guidance is not appropriate for other game.

“We don’t know if consuming game species such as deer and waterfowl with PFAS in it poses a definable health risk,” Preimesberger said.

She cited two unanswered questions related to issuing consumption advisories for deer and ducks: Does consumption raise PFAS in the consumer’s blood serum levels? Are the areas with elevated PFAS also directly overlapping with areas where there is hunting?

“We don’t know what the levels of PFAS are in beef, chicken, and pork that we buy in the store and whether wild game is any higher,” Preimesberger said.