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Fleas and Pharmaceuticals
Scientists say a lot of the things we take to wake up, go to sleep or fight illness are winding up in lakes, streams and drinking water. Researchers are trying to determine what they do there.
Colleen Flaherty studied the effects of things like antibiotics, antidepressants and cholesterol-lowering drugs on tiny water fleas called Daphnia. These organisms are the foundation of the food chain in many freshwater ecosystems.
Flaherty is a graduate student in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She says all sorts of things we consume get into the water because they're not completely broken down by our bodies. In some cases, up to 90 percent of a drug can be excreted in a biologically active form. Flaherty says most of the drugs she studied get into the environment through human excretion.
"When you drink a cup of coffee, when you take an anti-biotic or an antidepressant or a birth control pill, or anything, you can imagine how many drugs are ending up in our waterways. They have been found in surface water, groundwater and drinking water at very low concentrations."
Flaherty says some medications she tested altered the number and sex of the offspring of Daphnia. Flaherty says combinations of drugs, like an antibiotic mixed with a cholesterol-lowering medication, can have adverse affects on the water fleas. She says there are mixtures of drugs in the wild, and the effects of that chemical cocktail are hard to evaluate.
She says people may add to the problem by flushing their unwanted or expired prescription drugs down the drain. Flaherty presented her work last year at a meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
From Earthwatch Radio
Scientists say a lot of the things we take to wake up, go to sleep or fight illness are winding up in lakes, streams and drinking water. Researchers are trying to determine what they do there.
Colleen Flaherty studied the effects of things like antibiotics, antidepressants and cholesterol-lowering drugs on tiny water fleas called Daphnia. These organisms are the foundation of the food chain in many freshwater ecosystems.
Flaherty is a graduate student in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She says all sorts of things we consume get into the water because they're not completely broken down by our bodies. In some cases, up to 90 percent of a drug can be excreted in a biologically active form. Flaherty says most of the drugs she studied get into the environment through human excretion.
"When you drink a cup of coffee, when you take an anti-biotic or an antidepressant or a birth control pill, or anything, you can imagine how many drugs are ending up in our waterways. They have been found in surface water, groundwater and drinking water at very low concentrations."
Flaherty says some medications she tested altered the number and sex of the offspring of Daphnia. Flaherty says combinations of drugs, like an antibiotic mixed with a cholesterol-lowering medication, can have adverse affects on the water fleas. She says there are mixtures of drugs in the wild, and the effects of that chemical cocktail are hard to evaluate.
She says people may add to the problem by flushing their unwanted or expired prescription drugs down the drain. Flaherty presented her work last year at a meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
From Earthwatch Radio
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 05:00 pm (UTC)From:Some of my fondest memories in life stem from times when I allowed myself to drift about / laze on my back in the deep water at a local public beach*, staring at the bright blue sky overhead. (*lakeshore to youse amerikans)
Kind of makes a guy wonder how much of the water he ingested, heheh.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 05:38 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 06:25 pm (UTC)From:What do they suggest we do with expired or unused medicine?
no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 09:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 09:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2003-05-15 09:31 pm (UTC)From:That's what it is here, but "down there" it's not (according to some 'merikens that I've gotten into arguments with in the past, anyway). Maybe the insanity is localized to states with oceanview or something, I don't know.
*goes back to consumption of alcohol*