This Is Your Fish on Drugs
BY Christine Davidson
Have you ever wondered what happens to the shampoo and soap that rinse down the drain when you bathe? What about the Tylenol you flush down the toilet because it passed its expiry date? The answers to these questions may be more startling than you think. Over the past decade, traces of cosmetics ingredients and pharmaceuticals have been found in Canada’s lakes, rivers and tap water. And according to Health Canada, these chemicals enter the water system primarily through our household drains. As a group, these chemicals are called PPCPs (pharmaceuticals and personal care products) and researchers are beginning to worry about the possible effects PPCPs have on public health and the environment.
In Canada, experiments exposing animals to low doses of cosmetic ingredients such as phthalate (a chemical compound used in everything from screwdriver handles to perfume) showed early pregnancy loss and severe birth defects such as skeletal malformations.
At the University of Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Water Institute, research into the effects of painkillers, antidepressants and lipid regulators on lake fish showed that even when diluting the drugs to one part per billion—the same concentration detected in Lake Ontario—within hours fish were swimming in their own mucus barely able to open their gills to breathe.
But little is known about the effects of PPCPs on human health. In spite of the lack of complete evidence, Health Canada declared phthalate in concentrations of 10 percent or less non-toxic to human health and the environment. Even at concentrations under 10 percent, “we are exposed to a mix of PPCPs on a daily basis throughout our lives. Small amounts of different chemicals can add up,” says Sharon Batt, member of Women and Health Protection, a group of Canadian academics, journalists and activists. Because so little is known about human exposure to PPCPs, Batt admits low concentrations in water may be non-toxic. Nonetheless, she puts forth the question, “Why should there be any concentration of these chemicals in our water?” A question Health Canada has yet to answer.
