Tunisia's Blue River is a major source of contamination for pharmaceutical waste
Pollution of pharmaceutical waste in Tunisia's Blue River is one of the images taken from Twitter.
Pollution caused by waste of medicines and pharmaceutical products dumped in rivers worldwideA research report claims that it poses a threat to global health. The University of York conducted the study. The BBC has published a report.Among these wastes, paracetamol, nicotine, caffeine, anti-epileptic and anti-diabetic drugs were widely used, the report said.It is one of the largest research conducted worldwide.The rivers of Pakistan, Bolivia and Ethiopia are more polluted. The rivers in Iceland, Norway and the Amazon rainforest are the best. Although the effects of most common pharmaceutical compounds in river water are still largely unknown.However, it is well established that contraceptives used by humans in river water can affect the reproduction and development of fish. Scientists fear that the increased presence of antibiotics in the river could reduce the effectiveness of fish breeding and development as a drug.
The study took water samples from more than a thousand experimental sites in more than 100 countries.According to the report, the active presence of pharmaceutical ingredients in more than one-fourth of the 256 rivers collected in the sample was found to be unsafe for aquatic life.
Dr. led the study. John Wilkinson told BBC News:We take chemicals as these drugs, they have some desired effect on us and then they go out of our body. '
However, what we are seeing now is that even modern wastewater treatment plants are not able to completely destroy the compounds contained in contaminated water before mixing with river or lake water.The two most commonly found pharmaceutical ingredients in river water are carbamazepine and metformin. Carbamazepine is used to treat epilepsy and nervous pain, and metformin is used to treat diabetes.
In addition to the painkiller paracetamol, high concentrations of caffeine (coffee) and nicotine (cigarettes) used daily have been found. High concentrations of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin have been found in Africa.What we see now is that even modern wastewater treatment plants are not able to completely destroy the compounds in contaminated water before mixing it with river or lake water.
Dr. John Wilkinson
Aquatic environmentalist at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Veronica Edmunds-Brown told BBC News: "We can say that the presence of such drugs in the river could have a negative effect. All you have to do is research each subject separatelyHave to. He added: "The situation is getting worse because we have increased the use of pharmaceutical products for any kind of physical or mental illness."
The research report said that the increased presence of antibiotics in the river could create antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which could impair the effectiveness of the drug and ultimately pose a "serious threat to the environment and world health."The active presence of pharmaceutical ingredients in more than one-fourth of the 256 river water collected in the sample was found to be unsafe for aquatic life.
The most polluted rivers have been identified in low- and middle-income countries, where waste is dumped, wastewater management is poor, and there is a pharmaceutical industry.Mohammed Abdullah, an associate professor at Imaging Contaminants at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said: This is because of the lack of water treatment plant infrastructure. '
This is a matter of great concern. Because you have a high-risk population with minimal access to healthcare.What to do now, the chief researcher said. Wilkinson expressed some frustration. Among the many things that will work now is the proper use of drugs.
The full research report is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal
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