Side effects of prescribed pharmaceuticals can not only harm human health, but their residue is also harming the environment and our wild animals. According to an analysis, reported by Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), this pharmaceutical pollution poses “… a significant risk to freshwater ecosystems and the global food chain.”

Active pharmaceutical ingredients found in drugs (API’s), number over 2000. These can get into our water systems, through waste disposal and by human excretion, and include up to 90% of the active ingredients. Also farm animals, fed hormones and antibiotics, excrete these drugs into the environment, and pharmaceutical plants discharge drug polluted wastewater.

One result of this pollution is that humans and animals are getting at least low levels of the APIs in their drinking water. Even though levels of one ingredient might be low, we must realize there can be low levels of several APIs consumed at the same time and over a long period of time. Neither the health impact of one low-level exposure nor the effects of long-term consumption nor synergistic effects of multiple exposures on humans is yet known.

ANH says that not even reverse osmosis filtration can remove all of the drug residue. And as usual, those who can afford more expensive filtration systems or costly bottled water, have a health advantage over those with low incomes—and also over the animals who are exposed.

Environmental studies have been able to discover effects of some contaminants on certain animal species, says ANH. For example, diclofenac, in NSAIDs, is contributing to endangerment of vultures, while antidepressants, antihistamines, antipsychotics and endocrine-disrupting APIs are adversely affecting behavior and reproduction of fish. The pollution, of course, also affects aquatic plants.

The harm is not measured in health effects only. Even the impact on a small insect, from veterinarians’ use of a parasite killer (Ivermectin), is estimated to cost the U.S. $380 million a year, because of the dung beetle’s role in decomposing animal waste.

In response to these disturbing facts, ANH proposes that pharmaceutical companies be required to “do more to show that their drugs are safe.”  It is also an argument for promotion of more natural treatments for health conditions.

For more on this topic:

https://anh-usa.org/wild-animals-have-a-growing-drug-problem/