Fish on Prozac: This is Your Ocean on Drugs
More than 200 million prescriptions for antidepressants are taken each year in the US, many of which end up in our ground water through patients’ excrement or from the pills being flushed down the toilet. According to Discover Magazine:
The concentrations of antidepressants in the water—billionths of a gram per liter—aren’t enough to affect larger species, but they are enough to make small fish and fish babies feel woozy. Researcher Meghan McGee tested the effect of antidepressants on young minnows by exposing unhatched and newly-hatched minnows to levels of antidepressants commonly found downstream of water treatment plants. The drugged minnows appeared lethargic and took twice as long to react to stimulus, making them much more vulnerable to predators.
Larger fish feed on the smaller fish and then…
Image: The Jamoker on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
I just hope people realise soon such serious consequences and be a bit more concerned about mother earth and other existing beings
Annie Bankss
Save Our Planet
This is just one important part of a much bigger problem - all the crap that ends up flowing into the ocean. What we don’t know is the accumulative effect over a long period of time.
There’s much we can do to clean up the environment and most of it begins at home.
Thank you for this coverage and timely post…..
There is an up-side. Shark attacks are down 35%, though there have been reports of sexual side-effects in male members.