Maine Warns Hunters to Throw Out Deer and Turkey Meat After Tests Reveal High Levels of Forever Chemicals in Some Areas

By Alice Jones Webb | Outdoor Living | October 29, 2024

Read the full article by Alice Jones Webb (Outdoor Living)

"The state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a “Do Not Eat” advisory Thursday for two new locations in Central Maine. The two advisory areas include approximately 5.5 square miles in Unity and Unity Township and 4.3 square miles in Unity, Freedom, and Albion. This new advisory is in addition to a larger region that spans approximately 25 square miles in Somerset County, which has been under a Do Not Eat advisory since November 2021.

The initial warnings were issued after MDIFW began testing PFAS levels in wildlife harvested in the Fairfield area just north of Portland, a sector with some of the state’s highest-known PFAS soil concentrations. When high levels of PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), one compound in the PFAS family of chemicals, were detected in five of eight deer tested in October 2021, MDIFW and MCDC issued the advisory for 125 square miles in the area “out of an abundance of caution for public health.”