An Insight Into Top 5 Environmental Impact Of Drugs

Top 1 environmental impact of drugs: contaminating water resources

Various new synthetic chemical drugs that have come out continuously not only relieve the pain of human beings, but also bring various influences to nature, especially to the pollution of drinking water sources. Although there is a sewage treatment system, it has to be said that there are still many water containing pharmaceutical ingredients flowing into the river. In 2002, the US Geological Survey tested 139 rivers in 30 states, and they found that 80% of the rivers contained drugs, hormones and traces of steroids. But the problems discovered by the scientific community have not received enough attention worldwide. Most countries still lack investigations and accurate data on the actual situation of drug contamination in their drinking water sources. The consequences of drug pollution in rivers have already begun to emerge. For example, the sexual development and reproduction of some fish in the Seine River in France are abnormal, which is directly related to the residual hormones in the river water.

Top 2 environmental impact of drugs: disrupting marine ecological balance

If the antidepressants prescribed in the United States are not handled properly, they will enter the water system through the toilet and eventually enter the ocean. If shrimps absorb this part of the drug, they will be more aggressive, affecting other species, and even producing abnormalities and mutations, resulting in The bottom of the ecological structure is destroyed. Experiments put hormones into lake water, and the study found that the balance of fish populations would be affected, causing the total number of fish to drop rapidly. Trying drugs on the squid in the laboratory will greatly improve the squid's desire to eat and attack, and at the same time, the judgment will decline, causing the squid to waste a lot of physical strength.

Top 3 environmental impact of drugs: destroying the ecological balance of the human body

Due to the abuse of antibiotics, the internal environment is deteriorated. A study by British asthma experts found that children who took antibiotics before the age of 6 months were three times more likely to develop asthma after the age of 5 than children of the same age. Statistics from the pediatric department of a hospital in the United States showed that children who did not take antibiotics had a 29% chance of returning to the hospital, while those who took antibiotics had a 44% chance of returning.

Top 4 environmental impact of drugs: causing soil pollution

Pesticides can prevent diseases, insects, and weeds. If used properly, they can increase crop yields. However, they are a type of highly harmful soil pollutants. Improper application can cause soil pollution. About half of the pesticides sprayed on crops are scattered in the farmland, except for some absorbed by plants or escaped into the atmosphere. This part of the pesticides and the pesticides directly applied to the fields constitute the basic source of pesticides in the farmland soil. Crops absorb pesticides from soil, accumulate in roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds, and endanger human and livestock health through food and feed. In addition, while pesticides kill insects and prevent diseases, they also harm microorganisms, insects, and birds that are beneficial to agriculture, destroy ecosystems, and cause indirect losses to crops. In addition, sewage sludge treated by waste treatment facilities is often used as fertilizer in the United States, but studies have found that there are still residues of drugs, detergents, and cosmetics in it, which will pollute the soil.

Top 5 environmental impact of drugs: Driving Species to Extinction

The long-term exposure of pharmaceutical pollutants in the environment will also affect the growth and development of organisms and the structure and function of ecosystems. Low concentrations of drugs in water enter aquatic organisms through the digestive system, induce resistant bacteria in the gut, and induce the production of drug resistance genes in organisms. Some studies have found that drug resistance genes can be passed to advanced trophic organisms through the food chain of aquatic animals, and the top predators in the food chain are usually victims. Not only that, the extinction rate of drug pollution to invertebrates, especially mollusks, has greatly exceeded that of birds, amphibians and mammals. British scientists have shown that 3% of gastropods and at least 5% of freshwater bivalve invertebrates have disappeared due to pollution by drugs, and at least 40 invertebrate species are facing serious drug pollution. threaten. At present, the rate of extinction of invertebrates in freshwater systems, marine systems and terrestrial systems is accelerating due to the pollution of drugs, and the pressure of drugs on the entire ecosystem is spreading. British scientists analyzed that people's protection of invertebrates is far less than that of birds and mammals. For example, among the 1,148 species of animals listed in the EU's animal protection status, vertebrates account for nearly 1,000 species, while invertebrates have only a few In some cases, these protected invertebrates account for only about 0.1% of the total.

We should use all medicines scientifically and rationally to maximize their effect and minimize their pollution to the environment.