A study of more than 1,000 sites in 258 rivers on all seven continents finds that pharmaceutical pollution is a pervasive problem worldwide. The work, published today (February 15) in PNAS, surveyed sites in 104 countries, including 36 countries not previously examined, and is the largest and “first truly global” study of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) pollution, according to the Global Monitoring of Pharmaceuticals Project, which conducted the research. The findings demonstrate that “pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health,” the authors write.
“This is only going to get worse as we are increasingly using pharmacological solutions to any illness whether physical or mental,” University of Hertfordshire aquatic ecologist Veronica Edmonds-Brown, who is not involved in the study, tells BBC News.
The researchers focused on 61 of the commonly used measurable pharmaceuticals—leaving thousands of others untested—as current technology only allows for 50 to 100 APIs to ...
