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we consume more than 100,000 tonnes of pharmaceuticals every year. and then these drugs end up in our water
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the study found that a quarter of the sites studied had harmful levels of contaminants, including the anti-bacterial drug sulfamethoxazole. getty
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pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating water on every continent, sometimes at potentially toxic levels, according to a new study from the university of york in the u.k.
“we’ve known for over two decades now that pharmaceuticals make their way into the aquatic environment where they may affect the biology of living organisms,” said dr. john wilkinson, one of the study’s co-authors. but while most previous studies focused on specific parts of western europe and north america, this one was more ambitious.
the study examined water from 258 rivers around the world, in areas representing the “environmental influence” of 471 million people. rivers in three canadian regions — calgary, ottawa and toronto — were included. each of the thousands of sample taken were examined for the presence of 61 active pharmaceutical ingredients, including codeine, acetaminophen, lidocaine, and benzodiazepines.
the study found that a quarter of the sites studied had harmful levels of contaminants, including the anti-bacterial drug sulfamethoxazole, beta blocker propranolol, antibiotic ciprofloxacin and allergy drug loratadine. researchers noted that caffeine, nicotine, acetaminophen (like tylenol) and drugs for the treatment of allergies, epilepsy, diabetes and were found at the highest concentrations. the rivers with the highest pollution rates were in bolivia, pakistan and ethiopia. (one of the highest concentrations of pollution was at the rio seke, a small river in la paz, bolivia.) iceland and norway were among the least polluted.
the researchers found a clear connection between a country’s income level and its level of polluted water — the most-polluted areas had lower income levels, high unemployment levels, and high median ages. they were also regions that had previously received less research, especially the regions in sub-saharan africa and southern asia.
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how drugs end up in our water
there are several ways that rivers end up contaminated with pharmaceuticals. water treatment is a big part of the equation: research shows that waste water is often inadequately treated. between 30 and 90 per cent of the dose of an oral drug is excreted as an active substance through urine.
“typically, what happens is, we take these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave our bodies,” wilkinson told bbc news. “what we know now is that even the most modern efficient wastewater treatment plants aren’t completely capable of degrading these compounds before they end up in rivers or lakes.”
this is the case in tunis, tunisia, and nablus, palestine where sewage is untreated — they are also both regions with high pharmaceutical pollution rates.
another common factor in many of the areas with high levels of pharmaceutical pollution is garbage or residual septic tanks being dumped into rivers or on river banks. pharmaceutical manufacturing, too, causes a lot of pollution, with ingredients emitted into the environment during the manufacturing process. in fact, areas with heavy pharma manufacturing — including barisal, bangladesh, and lagos, nigeria — were among the areas with the most polluted rivers.
there are more than 100,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical products consumed every year, according to the european environmental bureau. studies have found that drug manufacturing can, in some cases, “greatly exceed toxic threshold concentrations.”
climate and geography also make a difference: dry areas like madrid, spain had more pharmaceutical waste, while alpine regions like the rocky mountains and the llidaár river in iceland had less, as did rivers with strong flows, like the amazon river, the mississippi river, and the mekong river in luang prabang, laos.
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‘only going to get worse’
exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients has been linked to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, among other detrimental effects on humans’ health and ecosystems. it’s hard to know exactly how damaging the pollution found in this study will be, aquatic ecologist dr. veronica edmonds-brown told bbc.
“we can say [the impact of the presence of such pharmaceuticals in rivers] is likely to be negative, but you have to do individual tests with each one and there are relatively few studies,” she said. “this is only going to get worse as we are increasingly using pharmacological solutions to any illness, whether physical or mental.”
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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