Scientists have expressed concerns that polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) – an industrial toxin – have spread worldwide after they found high levels in people who eat whale meat in the remote Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic.

Higher than normal traces of PFCs have been found in the blood of people who eat whales in the Faroe Islands. These levels are comparable to the levels found in people in industrial nations closer in proximity to the sources of the chemicals. The lowest levels of PFCs are found in children and mothers who do not consume much whale meat.

One of the researchers involved in the study said, “We know very little on the toxicity in humans so far, even less in regard to whales.” The pilot whales consumed by people in the Faroe Islands build up stores of PFCs in their muscles and liver from eating smaller fish that have absorbed PFCs from the ocean.

In separate reports, high levels of PFOs (one of nine types of PFCs) were found in the livers of polar bears. European Food Safety Authority research finds that some PFCs have produced tumors in rats, but so far they do not seem to cause cancer in humans. However, another study links PFCs to lower human birth-weights.