New Research Finds Traces of Meds in Local Rivers
New statistics have surfaced regarding how human behavior is linked to contaminated waterways. In a Facebook Live event on March 25, Emma Rosi, an Ecosystem Ecologist, and Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook NY detailed her latest findings.
“Where people go, we bring these residues with us,” said Rosi. It is not a new, revolutionary discovery to say that human beings contaminate ecosystems through daily functions. But, what is being discovered now is the level by which the contaminants are affecting wildlife.
The contamination was discovered locally in 2018 and released by Columbia University after researchers found high levels of drugs in the Hudson River. Now, Rosi is finding that the rivers are quite literally on drugs, as the pharmaceuticals are present in organisms.
The local issue has now become evident on a global scale. Human beings utilize pharmaceuticals, and then through their waste and improper disposal, those contaminants enter waterways and ecosystems which affect wildlife.
A case conducted in Baltimore Harbor revealed the annual loads of drugs within the harbor as equivalent to human doses. 35 thousand doses of antidepressants were found annually, 30 thousand doses of painkillers, and one thousand doses of antibiotics.
These drugs are consequently present in algae. A quick trip back to high school environmental science should spark the importance of the food web in almost every aspect of life. Algae is a crucial component of aquatic life as it exists as a primary producer for ecosystems. Drugs present in algae, although diluted, could potentially travel throughout the entire food chain.
Moreover, do antidepressants in fish create a lot of happy fish? Research just has not gotten there yet. There are 1,400 compounds already in circulation, as well as new drugs coming out every day. As human beings consume the newer and older pharmaceuticals, they enter the ecosystem primarily from their excrement, but also through improper disposal.
Waste treatment facilities just aren’t designed to handle this phenomenon. Rosi stressed the understanding that waste treatment facilities are not doing a poor job — they are merely not designed to rid these pharmaceuticals fully from human waste.
So how exactly are these drugs affecting organisms and overall aquatic life?
That is the next question Rosi is seeking to answer. Fish changing sex, and ecological disruptions have been noted historically, but Rosi wishes to understand more about the physiological effects of these drugs on non-human entities.
“If something doesn’t die, but it changes its behavior, or if it changes its life history, that is what we call ecological disruption. And I think we need to be concerned with the multiple dimensions that might occur,” said Rosi.
