14 DAY TRIAL // Health inspectors analyzing fish caught in five locations around the US have just made a terrifying find – most of the animals are infected with pharmaceutical residues, including drugs for depression, heart conditions, and other similar afflictions. On Wednesday, scientists reported that the study turned out such worrying results that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had ordered another 150 localized researches, in just as many places around the US.
The fish that have been analyzed during the current study come from 5 sources located off major cities, where it would appear that wastes from drugs dealing with conditions such as bipolar disorders, cholesterol, depression and high blood pressure are dumped in the water undiluted.
Naturally, they affect the fish population. And, in case you don't care about that, also consider that these animals are caught by industrial fishing ships and end up being served in supermarkets, as fresh and healthy products.
Needless to say, if people who eat fish regularly consume related products that are infected with drug cocktails, then the risk they run as regards their health is major. When doctors prescribe drugs, they always tell patients how to mix them and which pharmaceuticals can be taken with others. In fish, however, all types and classes of drugs have been found together, which makes for a very potent and very harmful combination of chemicals.
“The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it,” Baylor University professor and researcher Bryan Brooks, who is also the co-author of the new study, explains. He says that people will have to eat impressive amounts of fish to feel the effects of the drugs, but emphasizes the fact that marine wildlife is being decimated by the contamination.
This mostly happens because the creatures are constantly exposed to the stuff, and not just occasionally, as we are. That is to say, if we would live inside dust clouds, we would most likely die of suffocation, but we can go past a single one of them with no problem. The fish that have just recently been analyzed have been tested for 24 drugs, as well as for 12 chemical agents that can usually be found in personal care products.
“This pilot study is one important way that EPA is increasing its scientific knowledge about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment,” Suzanne Rudzinski, who is a spokeswoman for EPA, stresses. The federal agency has offered researchers the $150,000 grant that has helped fund their investigation.