Emagazine: Fish on Drugs


Photo credit: sfenvironment.org

Back in the 1990s, Theo Colborn, then-senior scientist with the World Wildlife Fund,sounded the first alarms about endocrine disrupters. In the book Our Stolen Future(Plume) Colborn describes her early findings that connected these endocrine disruptors—via chemicals in plastics, pesticides and pharmaceuticals—with male fish laying eggs and bald eagle eggs crumbling into tiny pieces. Soon, scientists developed new research techniques to study these estrogen-like compounds, which are highly active at trace levels. Now, those new research tools are putting the spotlight on an extremely persistent, and perhaps equally disruptive, group of contaminants: antidepressants.

A new body of evidence is building. Study after study shows widely prescribed drugs such as Prozac, Effexor and Celexa disrupt the natural order when they are excreted into the water. Scientists in Mississippi discovered antidepressants are interfering with the way tadpoles develop into frogs. They also interfere with the ability of tiny minnows to escape predators. Experts say these early signs could point to long-term problems for the aquatic food chain as a whole.

 

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