{"id":1490565,"date":"2022-05-24T18:29:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T22:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1490565"},"modified":"2022-05-24T18:29:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T22:29:41","slug":"study-shows-ocean-fish-loaded-with-pharmaceuticals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/study-shows-ocean-fish-loaded-with-pharmaceuticals\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Shows Ocean Fish Loaded With Pharmaceuticals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstudy-shows-ocean-fish-loaded-with-pharmaceuticals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1490565&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A new three-year study reports that pharmaceuticals are filling the ocean, causing fish to consume the substances and become literally filled with drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists at Florida International University and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust (BTT) analyzed 93 different fish off the coast of Florida and each one had drugs of some sort in its system. The average fish had seven different prescription drugs found throughout their body \u2014 some as many as 16.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found pharmaceuticals everywhere and there was no place where basically a fish could be unexposed to pharmaceuticals and that was a surprise,\u201d Nick Castillo told a local <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/videos\/the-fish-in-our-oceans-are-filled-with-drugs-new-study-says-antidepressants-pollution-wastewater-fisheries-water-oceans-valium-blood-pressure-medication\">CBS affiliate<\/a> in South Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Castillo added that just as these drugs cause changes in humans, they could also be affecting the behavior of fish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it could be making a fish more bold, they\u2019ll take risks. They can get eaten more frequently. It can affect their reproduction,\u201d Castillo added.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Jennifer Rehage, the lead researcher for the study, also told the media that the fish from all kinds of habitats are impacted by the pollution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAreas that we perceive as pristine and beautiful, and the water is clear and turquoise and there\u2019s fish swimming; they are contaminated,\u201d Rehage explained.<\/p>\n<p>The drugs end up in the ocean, in part, because prescription medications are not fully processed out of human waste, which is released into the sewage system. That waste is then sent to treatment plants, which cannot properly remove the pharmaceutical substances, and the drug-filled water is released into the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we don\u2019t have the right equipment and the right legislation, the rules, the treatment, and it\u2019s escalating and it\u2019s exploding right in front of our faces,\u201d Rehage said in reference to what can be done about the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Rehage added, \u201cThese findings are truly alarming. Pharmaceuticals are an invisible threat, unlike algal blooms or turbid waters. Yet these results tell us that they are a formidable threat to our fisheries, and highlight the pressing need to address our longstanding wastewater infrastructure issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adding to the problem, Boca Magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bocamag.com\/south-floridas-fish-have-a-drug-problem\/\">pointed<\/a> out that the federal Food and Drug Administration seems to encourage Americans to dispose of various drugs by flushing them down the toilet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the Food and Drug Administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/consumers\/consumer-updates\/where-and-how-dispose-unused-medicines#:~:text=Still%2C%20there%20has%20been%20no,caused%20by%20flushing%20recommended%20drugs.\">website<\/a>, the best way to dispose of drugs is to find a drug take back site near you and drop them off,\u201d Boca Magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bocamag.com\/south-floridas-fish-have-a-drug-problem\/\">reported<\/a>. \u201cDisturbingly, the FDA also has a \u2018flush list\u2019 of medications that are acceptable to flush down the toilet if unused and that \u2018there has been no sign of environmental effects caused by flushing recommended drugs.\u2019 This list includes narcotics such as Fentanyl patches and Vicodin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, researchers in Washington state also found that mussels off the coast of Washington had traces of oxycodone throughout their system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOxycodone is in the news right now, but there are a number of other pharmaceutical products that we found,\u201d biologist Jennifer Lanksbury, who led the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife study,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/kuow.org\/post\/relaxed-mussels-opioids-found-puget-sound-shellfish-hint-crisis\">told<\/a>\u00a0an NPR affiliate at the time. \u201cThe antibiotics, the anti-depressants, chemotherapy drugs, heart medications that we\u2019re finding in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new three-year study reports that pharmaceuticals are filling the ocean, causing fish to consume the substances and become literally filled with drugs. Scientists at Florida International University and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust (BTT) analyzed 93 different fish off the coast of Florida and each one had drugs of some sort in its system. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":1490602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1490565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1490565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1490602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1490565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1490565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1490565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}