India's Drug Problem

摘要

Waste flowing out of a treatment plant near Hyderabad in India pollutes the regions waters with some of the highest levels of pharma-ceuticals ever detected in the environment. In a paper being released online this week, researchers in Sweden report how this effluent has serious adverse effects on the development of tadpoles and zebrafish. The findings raise concerns for the health of wildlife and ecosystems in the region, as well as underscoring little-studied potential effects on human health. "The volume of drug production in that valley is overwhelming the system," says Stan Cox, a researcher at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. "Even though they have good [environmental] laws on the books, they're being swamped by the production." For several years, the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad and the country's Central Pollution Control Board in Delhi have monitored heavy metal and other pollutants around the town of Patancheru, which is home to factories producing solvents and other chemicals. But although Patancheru is also home to numerous drug companies, the government has not monitored for drugs being released into the environment.