Pharmaceuticals & Pollution

It's Time For Aquaculture To Start Kicking Its Drug Habit

Coastal open-water operations have come under fire for polluting coastal ecosystems with effluent and chemicals, including antibiotics, among a host of other issues.

Pharmaceutical Pollution

Growing. Ignored. A series of pioneering studies looks at how medical and personal care products—drugs, antibiotics, soaps, perfumes, antimicrobials—influence the way that freshwater ecosystems function.

Prescription Drugs Found In Large Concentrations In Water Near Manufacturing Plants

We're often told not to flush medicine down the toilet because it can work its way into lakes and streams, even our drinking water. Well, a new investigation finds that major drugmakers are basically doing the same thing on a much larger scale.

The costs and risks of AMR water pollution

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from water pollution is a major global health challenge.

The world’s rivers are flooded with antibiotics

Beyond its impact on wildlife, the pollution may allow antibiotic-resistant superbugs to flourish, and could in turn usher in a global health emergency that would put millions at risk. Through repeated exposure to antibiotics, bacteria mutate and evolve, developing resistance to medicines that would ordinarily save lives.

We're flushing all these antidepressants into our water. How big is the problem?

As pharmaceuticals taint rivers and lakes, scientists search for solutions.

Antibiotics pollute many of the world’s rivers

The new findings suggest a growing risk that drug-resistant germs will develop throughout the environment.

Concern Raised over Pharmaceuticals in Water

Americans are increasingly pollution conscious, but not every contaminant comes from a factory or exhaust pipe. Cornelia Dean, New York Times science editor, talks to Tony Cox about discarded pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

First global look finds most rivers awash with antibiotics

Almost two-thirds of the rivers studied contained enough antibiotics to contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

How antibiotic resistance is driven by pharmaceutical pollution

Factories in India making cheap antibiotics for the world are dumping their waste, with grim consequences for people living nearby – and global health too.

Pesticides and antibiotics polluting streams across Europe

Wildlife and human health are threatened say scientists as Syngenta accepts ‘undeniable demand’ for change.

Pharmaceuticals in the Water Supply

Most municipal sewage treatment facilities do not remove the pharmaceutical compounds from your water, and major upgrades would be required to do so. The federal government hasn’t stepped in to require testing or set safety limits, leaving many questions unanswered.

Scientists are putting antibiotics into the ocean—on purpose. And it’s our only hope.

A mysterious new coral epidemic is ravaging reefs across the Florida Keys.

There Are Antibiotics In Your Fish

When we think about food raised with antibiotics, we probably picture oversized chickens and plumped-up cows. But they’re also in our fish—both farmed and wild, finds a new study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Traces Of Opioids Found In Seattle-Area Mussels

Bay mussels in Washington's Puget Sound have tested positive for trace amounts of oxycodone, providing more evidence that the opioid prescription medication is truly ubiquitous.

What is the long-term health impact of pharmaceuticals in our water?

Scientists have been detecting traces of pharmaceuticals in our water systems for about 30 years now, but the research shows no one is getting a full dose of say, Prozac, just from drinking tap water. However, scientists do wonder whether these compounds may be having more subtle, long-term impacts on human health.

World's rivers 'awash with dangerous levels of antibiotics'

The researchers tested 711 sites in 72 countries and found antibiotics in 65% of them. In 111 of the sites, the concentrations of antibiotics exceeded safe levels, with the worst cases more than 300 times over the safe limit.

‘Dump it down the drain’: How contaminants from prescription-drug factories pollute waterways

A cacophony of machines, some as big as a dump truck, mix pharmaceutical ingredients, press them into tablets, and fill capsules at a West Virginia factory owned by generic-drug giant Mylan. By the end of each run, the walls, ceilings, floors, and nearly every nook and cranny of the intricate equipment were caked in powdery drug residues, say three former Mylan employees.

Something in the water

WATER companies have been telling us for years not to throw unwanted medicines down the toilet. Perhaps they were wasting their time because we excrete most of the drugs in urine anyway. And they are turning up in tap water at concentrations to rival those of pesticides.