How Is Our Medicine Cabinet Affecting Marine Life?

By: Jarrett Jones

A recent study at The University of Baylor along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) are being detected in marine life which live downstream from sewage treatment plants. The study involved a sampling of five different municipalities: Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Orlando, and West chester, PA near Philadelphia. The EPA has also called for additional study's which will determine the long-term effects on humans consuming contaminated drinking water?

According to Baylor "Many aquatic systems throughout the United States routinely receive effluent discharges from wastewater treatment plants." Although the study reveals that humans would have to consume mass quantities of infected fish to equal even a single dose, it could be harmful to aquatic life. While testing the fillet and liver tissues for twenty-four pharmaceuticals and twelve chemicals found in personal care products, researchers concluded:

• The residue of seven pharmaceuticals and two personal care products was present in fish at all five effluent-dominated river sites. In many cases, multiple compounds were found in the same fish.

• For the first time, gemfibrozil, used to treat high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, was found in wild fish livers.

• No pharmaceutical compounds or personal care product chemicals were detected in any fish collected at the reference stream in New Mexico.

• Diphenhydramine, an over-the-counter antihistamine also commonly used as a sedative in non-prescription sleep aids and motion sickness; diltiazem, a drug for high blood pressure; carbamazepine, a treatment for epilepsy and bipolar disorder; norfluoxetine, the active metabolite of the antidepressant fluoxetine; and sertraline, an antidepressant, also were detected in this study, confirming results of previous projects by the Baylor researchers.

• Galaxolide and tonalide, both fragrances used in soap and other personal care products, were found in fish fillet tissue from all five effluent-dominated river sites. The concentrations in the fish tissue for these fragrances were the highest of all compounds tested.

If it turns out that these chemicals are harmful to the marine life that could possibly mean less fish and fishing for us. While were not yet sure what this means to us as the average consumer, it has prompted the EPA to expand research to more than 150 locations.