Pollution of rivers by residues of pharmaceuticals and other pharmaceutical products poses a threat to the environment and global health. This is shown by river water research by the University of the British York at more than a thousand test locations in more than a hundred countries.
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258 rivers were sampled, including the Amazon in Brazil, the Thames, the Mekong and the Mississippi. More than a quarter contained so-called ‘active pharmaceutical ingredients’ at levels that are potentially toxic and considered unsafe for aquatic organisms.
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It concerned substances such as sulfamethoxazole (antibiotic for bacterial infections such as urinary tract infections, bronchitis and prostatitis), propranolol (blood pressure lowering agent), ciprofloxacin (antibiotic against infection of the bladder, respiratory tract, skin, bones and intestines) and loratadine (against hay fever and other allergies, hives and itching).
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The researchers looked at the presence of 61 pharmaceutical products in the river water. The two most commonly detected drugs were carbamazepine, which is used to treat epilepsy and nerve pain, and metformin, which mainly treats patients with type 2 diabetes.
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The researchers also encountered high concentrations of so-called ‘lifestyle consumables’ such as caffeine (coffee) and nicotine (cigarettes) and the painkiller paracetamol. Artemisinin, used in antimalarial drugs, was also found in high concentrations in river water in Africa.
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Wastewater treatment
“Normally we ingest these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave the body,” study leader John Wilkinson, of the Department of Environment and Geography at York University, told IPS. BBC News† “What we now know is that even the most modern and efficient wastewater treatment plants cannot completely break down these compounds before they end up in rivers or lakes.”
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What we now know is that even the most modern and efficient wastewater treatment plants cannot completely break down these compounds
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The increased presence of antibiotics in rivers could also lead to the development of resistant bacteria that affect the effectiveness of medicines and ultimately pose a “global threat to the environment and global health.”
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Wilkinson: ,,We have known for more than two decades that medicines find their way into the aquatic environment, where they can influence the biology of living organisms. But one of the biggest problems in addressing this issue is that we haven’t been very representative in monitoring these contaminants, with nearly all of the data focused on a select few areas of North America, Western Europe, and China. ”
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The researchers sampled rivers in more than half of all countries in the world. In 36 of these countries, rivers have never before been checked for the presence of drugs. “Through our project, our knowledge of the worldwide distribution of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment has now increased significantly. This one study presents data from more countries around the world than the entire scientific community was previously aware of: 36 new countries to be exact,” the study leader said.
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John Wilkinson
@John_Wilkinson4
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