With its most popular hunting season starting Saturday, Maine has expanded a “do not eat” advisory zone for deer and turkey bagged in central Maine due to elevated levels of harmful toxic chemicals detected in recent wildlife testing.

The hunting restriction is one of the unexpected consequences of Maine’s forever chemical crisis. The state encouraged farmers to recycle sewage sludge to fertilize the agricultural fields of central Maine. While treated for pathogens, the sludge was later found to contain high levels of harmful forever chemicals.

The new advisory came out last week. Maine’s firearms hunting season starts Saturday for residents. That will be the first chance for hunters who don’t use a bow-and-arrow to bag their annual deer. Fall wild turkey season began in September, depending on the area, and ends Nov. 7.

Where in Maine should people avoid hunting and consuming wild turkey or deer?

Maine has three “Do Not Eat” zones in central Maine. The first was a 25-square-mile area in east Fairfield and south Skowhegan. Last week, Maine added a 5.4-square-mile area near Route 139 in Unity and Unity Township and a 4.3-square-mile area near Route 202 in Unity, Albion, and Freedom.

How did the deer and turkey in these areas become unsafe to eat?

Contamination most likely occurred from consuming harmful chemicals in grass and water near farms that used sewage sludge as fertilizer. They are called forever chemicals because they can linger in the environment for a long time and build up in the blood and organs of game, fish, livestock, and humans.

Maine banned sludge spreading in 2021, becoming effective in 2022.

What are forever chemicals, and why is consuming them bad for you?

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are manmade chemicals resistant to heat, water, and oil used to make thousands of industrial and consumer products, from metal plating to makeup. They have been found at low levels in the environment and the blood of most Americans.

Studies of people exposed to PFAS have found links to increased cholesterol levels, decreased response to vaccines, liver inflammation, increased risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, and increased risk of certain cancers.

How does Maine decide where to test for PFAS in game animals?

Maine began testing wildlife in the Fairfield area in 2021 after the state found high levels of PFAS in milk produced from two local dairy farms. The nearby soil, water, and hay and corn fields had among the highest levels of PFAS measured in the state.

The wildlife tests found unsafe levels of forever chemicals in deer and turkey located within a mile of highly contaminated soils where the game animals like to graze. MDIFW focuses its testing on five miles around contaminated hotspots because that is the average range of a white-tailed buck.

How contaminated is the wildlife in the advisory areas?

MDIFW hasn’t yet released the PFAS test results that caused it to add the two new “do not eat” zones, but a May 2024 report from MDIFW contains data about the PFAS concentration levels found in the 25-square-mile Fairfield-Skowhegan advisory zone.

The 26 deer sampled tested up to 54.3 parts per billion (ppb) for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, one of the most persistent forever chemicals, averaging 20.2 ppb. The 29 turkeys sampled a year later tested up to 139 ppb, averaging 24.07 ppb.

Other PFAS were detected, but PFOS was found the most often and in the highest concentrations.

Using federal risk assessment methodology, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that no more than eight deer or turkey meals per year for adults and four meals per year for children could be consumed if harvested from this 25-square-mile area.

What should people do if they harvest deer or turkey from the advisory zones?

No part of any turkey or deer harvested from these zones is safe to eat, according to the state. The PFOS builds up in the organs and the meat, so it can’t be removed just by trimming the fat, and no amount of cooking will rid the meat or organs of it.

MDIFW urges anyone to throw deer or turkey harvested from these areas in the trash or landfill.

Testing the meat isn’t an option, MDIFW says. The limited number of U.S. labs that can test meat, muscle and organs for PFAS are prioritizing state and research organization samples, and are not accepting samples from the public. The state can’t run PFAS tests at game registration stations.

What should someone do if they have already eaten deer or turkey harvested from these areas?

Eating deer or wild turkey from an advisory area doesn’t necessarily mean the animal had high PFOS levels or that you will become ill. The risk of any health effects will vary based on the contamination levels of the meat, the quantity of meat consumed, the years of consumption and your general health.

Doctors can measure PFAS in a patient’s blood, but this detects PFAS build-up over the years, not where the PFAS came from, or if it will cause health problems. Most Americans have some PFAS in their blood, especially PFOS. There is no medically approved treatment to remove PFAS from blood.

Questions about blood testing or PFOS exposure from eating game animals from an advisory area can be directed to Maine CDC toxicologists at 866-292-3474 (toll-free in Maine), 207-287-4311, or Maine Relay 711.

How long will the advisory be in place?

No one knows. A dairy farmer can rid their milk of PFAS by switching their herd to clean water and feed, but the farmer will have to dump hundreds of gallons of contaminated milk while they wait weeks for the switch to take effect. But no one can control where deer and turkey graze and drink.

Fields with a history of sludge fertilization still have high levels of PFOS in the soil many years after the last application. Filters can remove PFAS from water, but clean irrigation water will become contaminated and impact the underlying groundwater if it seeps through contaminated soil.