WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, MARK ASHMANN
A series of recent studies suggests that pharmaceutical factories are not as careful with their waste as they should be, Nature reports. First, a 2009 study found high levels of bioactive ingredients in treated waste being released from a wastewater-treatment plant in India. Last year, investigations of two water-processing plants in New York revealed similar events. And now, new evidence published in Environment International suggests bioactive drugs are also making it into the waterways in France, and that they are affecting the fish populations in the local rivers.
Specifically, the new study, commissioned by the French environment ministry after the sighting of some abnormal fish, examined wild gudgeons (Gobio gobio) in a river near a Sanofi-owned facility that manufactures steroid compounds. The researchers found that ...
