(NADD)
Pharmaceutical residues have been found in fish caught near wastewater treatment plants in five major U.S. cities, researchers reported today.
The pilot study -- the first nationwide examination of human drugs in fish tissue -- has prompted U.S. EPA to expand research of contaminated fish to take samples in 150 different locations.
Samples of fish in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Orlando were contaminated with medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression.
The residue levels were low enough that a person would have to eat hundreds of thousands of fish dinners to get even a single therapeutic dose, said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor. But researchers including Brooks have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species because they are constantly exposed to contaminated water.
"The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day. ... We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it," Brooks said (AP/MSNBC.com, March 25). -- PR