Unprecedented levels of antibiotics pollute India's water.

"Levels of antibiotics measured in streams, lakes and well water near pharmaceutical factories in India are 100,000 to 1,000,000 times higher than levels measured in waters that receive sewage effluent in the US or China. Much of the world's supply of generic antibiotics is produced in the study area. These levels pose direct risks to human health via contaminated drinking water, and they may also foster conditions for pathogens to develop antibiotic resistance."

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"They found shockingly high concentrations of several antibiotics and other drugs – concentrations 105 to 106 fold higher than previously reported levels from the US."

One more excerpt:
"High amounts of four antibiotics were measured in the lakes that do not take in wastewater from the sewage plant. The levels of ciprofloxacin (2.5 mg/L) and cetirizine (20 μg/L) in one of the lakes was higher than previously measured levels in the blood of people taking the medications, report the authors. This suggests there are other unknown sources – perhaps illegal dumping – of wastewater responsible for polluting the lakes.

In addition, effluents from a wastewater treatment had concentrations of ciprofloxin of 14 milligrams per liter (mg/L) and cetirizine as high as 1.2 mg/L. These concentrations are approaching therapeutic doses (concentratios that would kill some microorganisms outright). Concentration reported in the US range in the nanograms per liter (ng/L), which are one million fold less."

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"What does it mean?
Enormous quantities of antibiotics are released into wastewater from drug factories that manufacture the bulk of the world's pharmaceutical antibiotics. The compounds contaminated nearby surface and ground water, exposing people and aquatic wildlife to the drugs.

These levels of contamination are alarming for two reasons. First, they may adversely affect human health following exposure to contaminated water. The health effects of ongoing exposure to high concentrations of mixtures of pharmaceutical mixtures are largely unknown. This is especially true for a developing fetus, baby or child."




Wastewater treatment plants do not remove pharmaceutical traces, why was this allowed for years and years?
And what are we waiting for to do something about this, worldwide?