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Sunday, February 20th, 2022

Pharmaceutical Drug Pollution in Rivers Poses ‘Global Threat to Human and Environmental Health,’ Study Finds

Author:     Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
Source:     EcoWatch
Publication Date:     Feb 16, 2022 | 10:15AM EST
 Link: Pharmaceutical Drug Pollution in Rivers Poses ‘Global Threat to Human and Environmental Health,’ Study Finds
Stephan:   Pharmaceuticals have flooded the world, and polluted the rivers and lakes. SR has done stories on this but, until recently not much attention has been paid to this, but this is how virus mutations like Covid occur. These chemicals are also altering Earth's ecosystems and that is causing a spectrum of changes. We need to develop new technologies, drug medicine is proving to be an environmentally disordering technology. The whole idea of wellbeing requires a new world view in which consciousness is recognized as causal and fundamental, and its effects are included in any consideration of new technologies. To download the full scientific research paper that is the focus of this report for a general audience  go to: https://www.pnas.org/content/119/8/e2113947119
Dallas, Texas, was among the locations with the most drugs detected in rivers. Credit: 4kodiak / E+ / Getty

Pharmaceutical drugs have polluted the world’s rivers and pose “a global threat to environmental and human health,” according to a new study by the University of York. The most extensive global study to date found that among the most polluted rivers were those in Bolivia, Pakistan and Ethiopia, while rivers in the Amazon rainforest, Iceland and Norway were those with the least amounts of drug pollution, BBC News reported.

The study, “Pharmaceutical pollution of the world’s rivers,” in which 127 researchers representing 86 institutions participated, was published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Typically, what happens is, we take these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave our bodies,” research leader Dr. John Wilkinson said to BBC News.

“What we know now is that even the most modern efficient wastewater treatment plants aren’t completely capable of […]

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