Will the fish be happy?
Aug.09, 2004, filed under Miscellany
After the worrying claims recently about the potential adverse affects of anti-depressants, particularly when over-prescribed, it is faintly alarming to read that the EA has found Prozac in drinking water. Unsurprisngly, given the crappy nature of the EA website, I can find no mention of the story on there. What I find worse, however, is the statement that: "A spokesman for the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) said the Prozac found was most likely highly diluted."
Compared to what, exactly? One of the issues in recent years when it comes to water quality and sewage is precisely the fate of pharmaceuticals prescribed to the public. Oestrogen-mimicking chemicals have been found in our rivers and streams, some of which may be having an effect on fecundity in fish. Now we find that there are drugs like Prozac in there as well. There was a letter in New Scientist recently discussing the way that organophosphates in the body make a person more sensitive to certain anti-depressants. The EA is saying that the levels of Prozac in the water table may present a toxic risk.
I’m a scientist. At the end of the day, I know that everything is made of chemicals. But some chemicals really shouldn’t be in the environment, and that includes Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors.
Leave a Reply
-
Singularity
~something that is singular as (a) a separate unit, or (b) unusual or distinctive manner or behavior; PECULIARITY;
~the quality or state of being singular;
~a point at which the derivative of a given function of a complex variable does not exist but every neighborhood of which contains points for which the derivative exists;
~a point or region of infinite mass density at which space and time are infinitely distorted by gravitational forces and which is held to be the final state of matter falling into a black hole. Sight
