Australian freshwater creatures consume drug cocktail
MELBOURNE: Platypuses may be having a cocktail of prescription drugs up to half the prescribed human dosage in six streams in Melbourne’s east, an international study reveals.
The Monash University ledstudy, published yesterday in Nature Communications, reveals the mammal and other aquatic animals may consume more than 60 pharmaceutical compounds including antidepressants in waterways.
Aquatic insects take in the pharmaceuticals and their predators — such as platypuses and brown trout — eat them and are potentially exposed to the drugs, the research finds.
‘‘Many pharmaceuticals are accumulating in aquatic invertebrates, but are also leaving the stream and moving to the surrounding landscape where they are consumed by spiders and potentially birds and bats,’’ lead study author Dr Erinn Richmond said.
The pharmaceuticals come into the streams through wastewater treatment facilities or leaky pipes.