Cocaine and ecstasy are just some of the drugs and pharmaceuticals that have been found in marine life in UK coastal waters, according to scientists from the University of Portsmouth and Brunel University London.
“We found cocaine in marine organisms, we found MDMA, we found methamphetamine. They are in crabs, in oysters, in seaweed, in worms that live in the sediments,” Professor Alex Ford, a marine biologist at the University of Portsmouth, told Reuters.
The ongoing study involved volunteer citizen scientists, all concerned about the state of the water, collecting hundreds of samples from Chichester and Langstone harbors which revealed high levels of potentially harmful chemicals in the water and wildlife.
“I actually stopped swimming,” Rob Bailey, a former regular swimmer, told Reuters.
“My whole group was disbanded because of the problem,” he said.
Bailey is a co-founder of the Clean Harbors Partnership, a group of swimmers, sailors and windsurfers who became concerned about the growing number of reports of illness in the area.
They set out to find out exactly what is in the water and the risks it poses to human health and the environment, with shocking results.
“Stopping swimming makes me really sad,” he said.
“If someone dumped sewage on your cricket pitch, you wouldn’t be very happy, or on your football pitch, you wouldn’t be very happy, would you? But the same thing happened here with our swimming activities.”
In 2021, Southern Water, responsible for water and sewage treatment in the region, admitted more than 50 infractions of illegal discharge of sewage into the environment between 2010 and 2015. The infractions were found to be caused by deliberate failures and the company was fined one record £90 million.
Researchers say untreated sewage is only part of the problem because what people consume is only partially metabolized on its way through our bodies, resulting in myriad compounds that are discharged into the sea and can have a dramatic effect.
“If you cage a fish downstream of a sewage treatment plant, it will begin to feminize within a few weeks. If you give antidepressants to a crab or a fish, it will change its behavior in the same way it was designed to change our behavior if we took this medication,” said Professor Ford.
Source: CNN Brasil
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