Anti-anxiety drug pollution makes fish fearless and antisocial - UK and US rivers feminize them/us

By Agence France-Presse: Anti-anxiety drugs find their way into wastewater where they make fish more fearless and antisocial, with potentially serious ecological consequences, researchers said Thursday.
Scientists examining perch exposed to the sedative Oxazepam — which, like many medications, passes through the human body — found that it made them more likely to leave their school and strike out on their own.
“Normally, perch are shy and hunt in schools. This is a known strategy for survival and growth,” said ecologist Tomas Brodin, lead author of the article, which will be published in Friday’s edition of Science.

“But those who swim in Oxazepam became considerably bolder,” he said, putting the fish at greater risk of being eaten by predators.
Brodin and other researchers at Sweden’s Umea University tested the fish by exposing them to drug concentrations corresponding to those found in wastewater in densely populated areas of the Scandinavian country.
In addition to growing bolder, the fish also ate more quickly, which the researchers fear could disrupt the ecological balance.
“In waters where fish begin to eat more efficiently, this can affect the composition of species, for example, and ultimately lead to unexpected effects, such as increased risk of algal blooming,”
Brodin said.
With the use of such drugs on the rise, in Sweden and elsewhere, the researchers said the changes in the fish could be a global phenomenon, adding that more research is necessary before broad-based conclusions can be drawn.
“The solution to the problem is not to stop medicating ill people but to try to develop sewage treatment plants that can capture environmentally hazardous drugs,” said environmental chemist Jerker Fick, in a statement released ahead of the article’s publication.
The scientists were to present their findings at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Boston on Thursday.


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Angelo: An update to old news. There was a documentary on the TV about 20 years ago, tests where groups of 12 male fish were left in cages in UK rivers near effluent outlets. In some instances Within about a week or two 50% had become feminized and there was invariably some level of effect at all points. A dramatic visual effect of the genitals distinctly changing gender through various stages until complete sex change. I remember interrogating in the kindest way possible, given the implication, various homosexual friends on the subject at the time. What if you have been feminized by the environment?

Animal testing is the usual method to test for effects on humans and this is a rather dramatic effect that has been in the open for some time. Going on the above alone I would strongly disagree with Jerker Fick and suggest that drugs that have these morphing etc. effects on fish should be withdrawn in all but exceptional circumstances and the many alternatives employed. In the meantime we should be striding to make better leaps in our understanding of this issue in the next 20 years.

I hope we avoid a future of 50% homosexual, prevalent mentally imbalance and wide spread deformity, don't you?

Unfortunately instant credit is only available for Military Industrial Complexes and Banksters. May I suggest we imagine a tyrant that not only wants to kill us but also all our progeny. Standing there waving it's honest to goodnesss feminize the planet WMD in plain view. Look MIC's, a real enemy of humanity!

Couldn't find the old UK program so here's a similar more recent discussion from the USA.