At the Ocean Sciences Meeting, Kerry MacKay discovers new data that illustrates how human activity impacts the aquatic world
ENVIRONMENT
Drugged-up
At the Ocean Sciences Meeting, Kerry MacKay discovers new data that illustrates how human activity impacts the aquatic world
I
had intended to write about controversial deep-sea mining this month. But fate had other plans. I have just spent the day at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow; an international conference with more than 5,000 participants. I was thrilled to get one-day access as an environmental educator( my day job with the GRAB Trust), and enjoyed many talks on ocean plastic research, as well as a vast array of other niche and topical research. I had hoped to speak with the researchers about deep-sea mining to bring you all a truly scientific viewpoint, but the poster and researchers were not to be found. Unfortunately, the only trace left of them was a notice saying‘ Withdrawn’. Instead, I stumbled upon an interesting poster looking at pharmaceuticals being washed out to sea. It’ s an important consideration for our oceans that often gets ignored. Here’ s a very brief overview. Imagine you have a headache. You might take some paracetamol or ibuprofen. Your body metabolises about 70-90 % of the drug and the rest will be excreted down the toilet.
That wastewater / sewage will eventually go to a sewage treatment plant( maybe via a septic tank), where it gets treated to remove all the organic matter. Then it’ s either released into the environment or further purified to become drinking water. I’ ve said before that our sewage treatment systems are not designed to remove microplastics. There are many other substances they don’ t remove, including drugs and pharmaceuticals. For example, paracetamol, ibuprofen, alcohol, caffeine, antibiotics, and pretty much any other substance we take have all been found in wastewater. You might be familiar with stories of male fish developing female traits due to oestrogen pollution in the Thames. Or that London sewage water has the highest levels of cocaine in Europe. The Thames passes through one of the
“ I stumbled upon an interesting poster looking at pharmaceuticals being washed out to sea”
most densely populated areas in the UK, so is exposed to a high amount of contaminated human wastewater. While just one modelling study, and focused around Italy, here are the findings from that poster( thanks to Laurent et al). Ibuprofen and Fluoxetine( Prozac) are of low concern as they were at low enough concentrations to be unlikely to harm aquatic life. Caffeine and Diclofenac( Voltarol) could be in high enough concentrations to harm aquatic life along many nearshore areas, particularly in areas that urban rivers flow into. Carbamazepine( Tegretol), was predicted at high levels that would be toxic to aquatic life, along almost all the coastal areas and farther out in the Mediterranean Sea. There’ s not all that much we can do about this as individuals. Many of us need pharmaceuticals for our health and quality of life. We can encourage policy and industrial change to invest in and modernise our wastewater treatment plants. I dream of the day when water released from our wastewater treatment plants is as clean as the rain. Though ideally with fewer microplastics than rain. My biggest tip this month is to make sure you dispose of any out of date / unwanted pharmaceuticals at your local pharmacy. They will happily send them off for proper disposal. Don’ t bin them, or flush them down the toilet or sink at home! I wish I could tell you how they dispose of pharmaceuticals, but I’ m at my word limit. Perhaps in a future issue, you can join me down that rabbit hole. �
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