River systems around the world are coursing with over-the-counter and prescription drugs waste which harms the environment, researchers have found. If trends persist, the amount of pharmaceutical effluence leaching into waterways could increase by two-thirds before 2050, scientists told the European Geosciences Union conference in Vienna on Tuesday. “A large part of the freshwater ecosystems is potentially endangered by the high concentration of pharmaceuticals,” said Francesco Bregoli, a researcher at the Delft institute for water education in the Netherlands, and leader of an international team that developed a method for tracking drug pollution “hotspots”.

A large number of drugs – analgesics, antibiotics, anti-platelet agents, hormones, psychiatric drugs, antihistamines – have been found at levels dangerous for wildlife. Endocrine disruptors, for example, have induced sex changes in fish and amphibians. Bregoli and his team used a common anti-inflammation drug, diclofenac, as a proxy to estimate the presence and spread of other medications in freshwater ecosystems.

Both the European Union and the US Environmental Protection Agency have identified diclofenac as an environmental threat. Veterinary use of it has driven a sub-species of vultures on the Indian subcontinent to the brink of extinction. More than 10,000km of rivers around the world have concentrations of diclofenac above the EU “watch list” limit of 100 nanograms a litre, the new research found. “Diclofenac emissions are similar to any of thousands of pharmaceuticals and personal care products,” said Bregoli. Global consumption of diclofenac tops 2,400 tonnes a year. Several hundred tonnes remain in human waste, and only a small fraction – about 7% – of that is filtered out by treatment plants. Another 20% is absorbed by ecosystems, and the rest go into oceans.

Bregoli and his team developed a computer model to predict current and future pharma pollution based on criteria such as population densities, sewage systems and drugs sales. They compared the results to data gathered from 1,400 spot measurements of diclofenac toxicity taken from around the world. Most of the data points were in Europe and North America. Pollution levels are likely to be substantially higher in much of Latin America, Africa and Asia where less than a quarter of waste water is treated, and with technology unable to filter out most pharmaceuticals.

Technology alone cannot solve the problem, said Bregoli. “We need a substantial reduction in consumption,” he said.

In other research presented at the conference, scientists found that the rapid expansion of sewage systems in large urban areas has sharply raised river pollution because much of it is not adequately treated. “In 2000, sewage was a source of pollution in about 50% of the rivers in the world,” said Maryna Strokal, a scientist at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. "By 2010, sewage was a source of pollution in almost all rivers worldwide.”

Antibiotics and chemicals waste is also driving the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, UN Environment warned in a study in December. Between 70% and 80% of all antibiotics consumed by humans and farm animals – thousands of tonnes – find their way into natural environments, it said.

Eigen mening:
We zijn langzaam maar zeker onze eigen planeet aan het verwoesten. Het moment van het alarmbelletje is al lang voorbij, nu zijn de sirenes aan het loeien. Toch blijven zo veel mensen de tekens negeren. Dit blijft mij verbazen. Hoe slagen we er in om al de risico's en gevaren te negeren en gewoon door te gaan? Ik weet het niet. Maar als we niet snel actie ondernemen, zitten we binnenkort op een dood bolletje in plaats van een levende aarde.

Dit artikel geeft nochtans duidelijk weer wat er (onder andere) moet gebeuren. Medicatie wordt te gemakkelijk voorgeschreven en te snel weggegooid. Dit is de zoveelste manier waarop we dieren en planten onnatuurlijk snel doen (uit)sterven. En dat is niet het enige gevaar. Veel mensen lijken niet te begrijpen/weten hoe gevaarlijk resistente bacteriën zijn. Als we door de planeet te verwoesten indirect onszelf kapot maken, dan doen we dat direct door resistente bacteriën te creëren. Het duurt niet lang meer voor al onze antibiotica niet meer werkt en dan gaan mensen weer sterven van simpele kwaaltjes die we niet meer kunnen behandelen. De verandering moet nu gebeuren of het is te laat.

Bron:
Agence France-Presse. (2018, april 11). Drug waste clogs rivers around the world, scientists say. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-scientists-say