Research: PPCPs Make Fish Less Cautious Of Predators

As a bizarre result of the environmental affects that pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) can have when they defy treatment operations, researchers have found antidepressants in source water may make fish less wary of predators.

“It has long been known that there are trace amounts of PPCPs … that escape our wastewater treatment plants and end up in waterways, including drinking water sources,” reported Water Online’s Kevin Westerling. “However, they appear in such trace amounts … that they have thus far been considered essentially harmless and therefore unregulated by the U.S. EPA.”

Though unregulated, many bizarre health effects have been traced back to the presence of PPCPs. They’ve even been thought to cause gender-morphing.

“Drugs can also affect fish behaviour, especially drugs that are supposed to alter human behaviour,” ZME Science reported. “Perch become bolder and more independent when exposed to anxiety medication. Now, Jake Martin, PhD candidate at Monash University … exposed the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to levels of the antidepressant fluoxetine that have been found in some water systems.”

Martin found that when exposed to the drug, the fish were more active and got close to a live predator much more quickly than a non-drugged fish would. Naturally, that would mean that the presence of antidepressants in waterways could make fish less cautious and could affect their numbers.

For wildlife advocates, this research emboldens the notion that treatment operations need to work harder on eliminating PPCPs.

“The main way to solve this problem is to implement water treatment technology that removes the pharmaceutical pollution from the water as well,” per ZME Science. “We already have a technique that works; reverse osmosis would pass water [through] a semi-permeable membrane that retains chemicals. However, it is very expensive to implement and governments are hesitant to switch.”

As water systems continue to evaluate the costs and benefits of addressing PPCPs, it will likely take additional regulatory action before fundamental changes are made.

To read more about PPCPs visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.