How Prescription Drugs Are Poisoning Our Waters

OnEarth Magazine reports on U.S. Geological Survey studies showing that most bodies of water are now contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs because wastewater treatment plants cannot remove them when released backed into the environment. The cost of technology to remove synthetic chemicals would be astronomical and would bankrupt most local governments.
More than 100 new drugs enter the marketplace each year and the health impacts of these drug residues, combined with the thousands more already in the environment, are mostly unknown. "Researchers are confronted with long latency periods for some human diseases, making it difficult to connect an illness or disorder with long-ago exposures. Some of the drugs in our waterways act upon more than one hormonal pathway; some may end up in humans through multiple exposures (for example, antibiotics from both food and water) and exposure to mixtures of contaminants may lead to an adverse effect."

Number of Ocean 'Dead Zones' Rises

United Nations marine experts now estimate that more than 200 oxygen-starved dead zones now exist worldwide, a number which has grown from 149 zones identified in 2004.
These zones are triggered by fertilizer and other chemical nutrient runoffs from rivers and streams and result in a killoff of global fish resources.

Swirling Plastic Vortex Menaces Sea Life

A Greenpeace report on ocean health has found the number of sea areas choked with plastics has increased significantly in the last few years. The largest remains an area of the Pacific the size of the state of Texas that has become a swirling vortex of plastics, everything from toothbrushes to beach toys and used condoms. Plastics act as a sponge for synthetic chemical toxins and once absorbed by fish and other marine animals, the toxins bioaccumulate up the food chain into humans.