http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28845640/

This is gonna spell disaster soon. Just imagine all the drug-resistant strains that could result from this.

Quote :

"Record high drug levels entering India stream Wastewater at nation's plants 150 times the highest found in U.S. PATANCHERU, India - When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000. And it wasn't just ciprofloxacin being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine cabinet — a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers say. Those Indian factories produce drugs for much of the world, including many Americans. The result: Some of India's poor are unwittingly consuming an array of chemicals that may be harmful, and could lead to the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria. . . . Last year, The Associated Press reported that trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals had been found in drinking water provided to at least 46 million Americans. But the wastewater downstream from the Indian plants contained 150 times the highest levels detected in the U.S. At first, Joakim Larsson, an environmental scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, questioned whether 100 pounds a day of ciprofloxacin could really be running into the stream. . . . In the India research, tadpoles exposed to water from the treatment plant that had been diluted 500 times were nonetheless 40 percent smaller than those growing in clean water. . . . "Who has a responsibility for a polluted environment when the Third World produces drugs for our well being?" Larsson asked scientists at a recent environmental research conference. . . . "We are using these drugs, and the disease is not being cured — there is resistance going on there," said Dr. A. Kishan Rao, a medical doctor and environmental activist who has treated people for more than 30 years near the drug factories. He says he worries most about the long-term effects on his patients potentially being exposed to constant low levels of drugs. And then there's the variety, the mixture of drugs that aren't supposed to interact. No one knows what effects that could cause. "It's a global concern," he said. "European countries and the U.S. are protecting their environment and importing the drugs at the cost of the people in developing countries." While the human risks are disconcerting, Sharp said the environmental damage is potentially even worse. "People might say, 'Oh sure, that's just a dirty river in India,' but we live on a small planet, everything is connected. The water in a river in India could be the rain coming down in your town in a few weeks," she said. . . . Drug factories in the U.S. and Europe have strictly enforced waste treatment processes. At the Patancheru water treatment plant, the process is outdated, with wastewater from the 90 bulk drug makers trucked to the plant and poured into a cistern. Solids are filtered out, then raw sewage is added to biologically break down the chemicals. The wastewater, which has been clarified but is still contaminated, is dumped into the Isakavagu stream that runs into the Nakkavagu and Manjira, and eventually into the Godawari River. In India, villagers near this treatment plant have a long history of fighting pollution from various industries and allege their air, water and crops have been poisoned for decades by factories making everything from tires to paints and textiles. Some lakes brim with filmy, acrid water that burns the nostrils when inhaled and causes the eyes to tear. . . ."

1/26/2009 8:47:09 PM

I was just wondering the other day if the tide doesn't clear out the pollutants every once in a while...

1/26/2009 8:48:38 PM

who cares about these third world countries and rat-humpers

1/26/2009 8:49:58 PM

Quote :

""People might say, 'Oh sure, that's just a dirty river in India,' but we live on a small planet, everything is connected. The water in a river in India could be the rain coming down in your town in a few weeks," she said."

I'm no evaporation expert, but is this really possible?

1/26/2009 9:05:06 PM

it's possible, but the evaporated water wouldn't have carried any of the drugs with it along the way.

1/26/2009 9:08:37 PM

um, so whats possible?

1/26/2009 9:09:00 PM

its like Bhopal and Union Carbide all over again, only slower

1/26/2009 9:10:46 PM

^^ Acid rain I guess? I would think all the drugs would be left behind even more concentrated than before

1/26/2009 9:14:30 PM

the people probably need all those medicines. it seems like i'm always hearing about people getting sick over there. i saw some thing on pbs where people were hanging out with rats. ugh.

1/26/2009 9:24:30 PM

they dont just hang out with them...they make shrines for them

1/26/2009 9:55:11 PM

I thought the study was going to make the following observation:

Does your finger hurt? Hit your toe with a hammer. Now your finger doesn't seem to hurt as much.

Wait, maybe that's still the observation being made.

1/27/2009 7:52:42 AM

Quote :

"who cares about these third world countries and rat-humpers"

haha

1/27/2009 9:01:45 AM

We've got some acquaintances that paddled the Ganges awhile back. That puts anything we saw on the Mississippi River to shame.

1/27/2009 10:33:23 AM