Furious Seasons

April 07, 2008

Prozac In Water Makes Fish Swim Weirdly And Not Eat

Toxicologists at Clemson University in South Carolina are studying the effects of pharmaceutcials and other chemicals that have made their way into our nation's water supply. It should shock no one that they are testing anti-depressants, Prozac in this case.

"One of Klaine's graduate students, Kristen Gaworecki, is looking at Prozac. She exposed bass to the drug, though at higher levels than those found in surface water, and found the fish had no desire to eat. They also behaved abnormally--swimming vertically as opposed to horizontally or with their backs out of the water."

That's so discouraging and worrying to read--and sort of knocks down the alleged "better than well" phenomenon attached to Prozac use--and I really have to think that having trace amounts of anti-depressants (and other crap) in water systems around this country simply cannot be good for any of us. Much less the fish.

An EPA official has a more bureaucratic take on this:

"'What has been detected is very trace level, well below therapeutic dose,' said Jim Lazorchak, acting chief of EPA's Molecular Indicator Research Branch. 'The occurrence of this in the environment does not necessarily mean there is a human health risk. We don't know. Until we get more information, there's nothing definitive we can say--other than we need to continue to take a look at what's out there.'"

I hope they keep looking, but I wonder when the day will come that a government official tries to make the argument that having anti-depressants at trace levels in our water supply is of no concern.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at April 7, 2008 12:03 AM

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Comments

It would be really nice to know the difference between what the bass got exposed to, and what's actually in the water, but I guess we'll have to wait until the actual journal article gets published for that.

Posted by: Simon at April 7, 2008 01:09 AM

Dearest Philip:

I hate to make some paraniod "Dr. Strange Love" connection here LOL. But I think it maybe be a CIA plot to mess with our precious bodily fluids LOL. Or just a bunch of angry bipolar flushing all useless medications down the toilet(I see a new warning label coming soon to deflect focus the real problems LOL).
Geez, I was kind of an ungraceful swimmer anywise; But I at least thought when I gave up on any medications being effective in controling my bipolar disorder, these sneeky little bastards try to keep me medicated through our drinking water supply. Will the madness never end?
Yours truly
Stan

Posted by: Stan at April 7, 2008 06:44 AM

The University of Georgia study of the prozac frogs has been out since 2003. The frogs were exposed to prozac in the normal course of their existance because of what's actually in the water. The study was released in 2003: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/14/coolsc.frogs.fish/index.html
Imagine how much more prozac is in the water now than then. How are we all being effected by all of these drugs in our water? When will I be able to buy a new brita water filter to get this stuff out? When I am, will I be able to, being so zonked out on trace levels of everything from prozac to birth control pills to doxycycline?

Posted by: Sally at April 7, 2008 07:02 AM

"I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind,--and all the worse for the fishes."

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., 1809-1894 (address delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1860)

Posted by: Johanna at April 7, 2008 03:54 PM

It doesn't matter if they're swimming weird and not eating; those are just side effects. The real question is, are the fish complaining any less about feeling depressed?

Posted by: UnderTheThresher at April 8, 2008 07:47 AM

Incredibale and frightening that we got all this prozac in the nature :-(

Posted by: Dameure at April 14, 2008 07:10 AM