Almost HALF of the world’s rivers contain dangerous levels of prescription drugs
When you think of pollution in rivers, you probably think of visions of plastic bottles and packaging.
But a new study has warned that nearly half of the world’s rivers are also teeming with prescription drugs.
York University researchers found unsafe amounts of drugs, including antidepressants, antihistamines and pain relievers in 43.5% of the 1,052 sites tested in 104 countries.
“Our findings show that a very large proportion of rivers around the world are under threat from pharmaceutical pollution,” said Alejandra Bouzas-Monroy, a co-author of the study.
‘So we should do a lot more to reduce the emissions of these substances into the environment.’

A new study has warned that nearly half of the world’s rivers are teeming with over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Pictured: a river in Nairobi


York University researchers have found unsafe levels of drugs including antidepressants, antihistamines and pain relievers in 43.5% of 1,052 sites tested in 104 countries
More than 100,000 tons of pharmaceutical products are consumed worldwide every year, according to the European Environment Agency (EEB)†
During production, use and disposal, pharmaceutical drugs are released into rivers, where they can affect organisms, including fish and aquatic plants.
In the study, the team sought to understand the magnitude of this pharmaceutical contamination around the world.
“This is the first truly global assessment of the effects of single drugs and drug mixtures in river systems,” said Ms Bouzas-Monroy.
The team sampled water at 1,052 locations in 104 countries, including the UK, Australia, France and the US.
The results showed that 43.5 percent of the sites had “relevant” concentrations of 23 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
This included substances from antidepressants, antimicrobials, antihistamines, benzodiazepines and pain relievers.
The sites with the highest levels were in Africa — with a river in Nairobi having the highest levels of all sites, the researchers said.
The sites with the highest mixture headquarters were located in Africa and were mainly associated with three sampling campaigns (Lagos in Nigeria, Nairobi in Kenya and Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo) where waste handling, sewage discharge points, dumping of raw sewage by suction trucks and pharmaceutical production activities were observed. the researchers wrote.
In Asia, the highest levels were in Lahore, in South America in La Paz and in Europe in Tübingen.
Worryingly, previous studies have shown how exposure to high levels of APIs can affect organisms, including fish and algae.
‘For example, it has been shown that concentrations of antibiotics in surface water are higher than PNEC’ [predicted no‐effect concentrations] values in the European and Chinese surface’, the researchers explain.
‘The anticonvulsant carbamazepine occurs in concentrations that give rise to acute and chronic effects in fish, daphnia and algae in Africa, China and Israel.


In Asia the highest levels were in Lahore, in South America they were in La Paz and in Europe (map shown) they were in Tübingen, Germany
“In Poland, Israel, China and Italy, stimulants have been identified as a group of concern related to their effects on water.”
The researchers hope their findings will encourage countries to take better measures to tackle pharmaceutical pollution in rivers around the world.
“Overall, the results show that API pollution is a global problem that is likely to negatively impact the health of the world’s rivers,” the team concluded.
“Emergency work is needed to address the problem and bring concentrations to acceptable levels.”
Worryingly, studies have shown that the presence of antibiotics in the environment contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the major emerging threats to human health today.
‘AMR burden in terms of lives lost, morbidity, health care costs and productivity loss is much greater than currently available statistics suggest – 25,000 deaths in 2007 – and projections estimate a 15-fold increase in morbidity in Europe due to AMR by 390,000 by 2050 deaths,” the EEB said.