Gills and Pills — US Fish Testing Positive for Anti-depressants, Plus 80 Other Drugs — NOAA

Fish found in Washington’s Puget Sound are tripping on cocaine, Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, and Lipitor. Unfortunately, there is no aquatic drug dealer responsible for it. Instead, the intoxication is the result of tainted discharge water.

Pharmaceutical pollution could be to blame for the many drugs showing up in the tissues of juvenile Chinook salmon. Estuary waters near the sewage treatment plants were found to contain a cocktail of up to 81 different drugs, according to a new study out of the National Oceanie and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

There are several plausible theories about the Puget Sound’s high concentration of drug-infused water. Jim Meador, an environmental toxicologist at the NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, published a study that offered two options.

One possibility is that people in the areas around the Puget Sound use more of the detected drugs. However, it is also likely that the problem lies with the treatment of waste water.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/gills-pills-fish-testing-positive-anti-depressants-80-drugs-noaa/#TUW3VYSObDPvvOXG.99