Drug Residues Found in Fish Flesh

The project, the largest of its kind on human drugs in fish tissue, have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations, reports Chinese news agency Xinhuanet..

Researchers from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, found trace amounts of seven different pharmaceutical drugs in fish caught near the North Side Treatment Plant at Howard Street and McCormick Boulevard in Skokie. They recorded similar results near sewage plants in Dallas, Orlando, suburban Philadelphia and Phoenix.

"The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it," said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

Among the medicines that the researchers discovered in fish are norfluoxetine, an anti-depressant; diltiazem, a medicine prescribed to control high blood pressure, and carbamazepine, an anti-seizure drug. They also found medication used to control high cholesterol and allergies, along with an anti-bacterial chemical and two fragrances found in soaps.