Bioaccumulation can be a process enhancing a pollutant’s persistence, or an effect much due to the latter. It thus plays an important role in the exposure to persistent endocrine disruptors. People and animals living in heavily industrialized areas and consuming contaminated fish at or near the top of the food web, such as trout and salmon, are likely to be most at risk.

According to the UK’s World Wildlife Fund organization (Lyons, 1999), at least 14 species of fish and fish-eating wildlife in the Great Lakes had experienced various adverse effects. These effects included population declines and reproductive problems, and were considered to have been attributed to contaminants found in the Great Lakes. In an effort to confirm the adverse health effects induced by certain contaminants bioaccumulated in these fish, separate toxicity studies were undertaken by investigators feeding the fish to several animal species. These test animals included rats, coho salmon, ranch mink, and chickens; and in each case there were measurable changes in functionality or survivability (Daly et al., 1989; Heaton et al., 1995; Leatherland and Stonstegard, 1982; Summer et al., 1996; Villeneuve et al., 1981).

A study by Jacobson et al. (1985) found that babies were born with poorer visual recognition and poorer short-term memory, after their cohort mothers consumed 2 to 3 meals of PCB-contaminated Lake Michigan fish monthly for 6 years prior to and after pregnancy. This epidemiology study also showed that exposure to PCBs in the womb, even at levels slightly exceeding those detected in the general population, can have a long-term cumulative impact on intellectual function. All in all, the above animal and human studies collectively support the argument that bioaccumulative effects are real and troublesome.