Scientists have found what they called environmentally damaging levels of illegal drugs in the river running through Glastonbury festival owing to public urination on the site.
Researchers measured levels of illegal drugs in the river before, during and after the last Glastonbury festival, in 2019, comparing levels upstream and downstream of the event.
After the 2019 festival, drug levels in River Whitelake were high enough to harm aquatic wildlife, including a rare eel population, according to the report.
It found that the amount of MDMA was 104 times greater downstream than upstream in the weeks after the festival, rising to levels that could harm the life cycle of European eels, a protected species. Cocaine concentration was 40 times higher downstream, although the levels of cocaine were not considered harmful to aquatic life.
A spokesperson for Glastonbury festival said that protecting streams and wildlife was of “paramount importance” to the festival and that they would be happy to work with the researchers to understand their results and recommendations.
“We have a thorough and successful waterways sampling regime in place during each festival, as agreed with the Environment Agency. There were no concerns raised by the Environment Agency following Glastonbury 2019.”
The researchers monitored a nearby river, Redlake, which does not cross the festival site. It experienced “no significant changes in any illicit drug levels, further confirming that drug release was likely dependent on the festival site”.
No surprise, really … and it does seem that something will be done about it …
Scientists find dangerous levels of cocaine in river according to the subtitle but, when you read the text you find the cocaine levels were not considered harmful to aquatic life, it was the MDMA. Come on The Grauniad, get your journos to sort things into the proper order before publishing.
I found the following on the Harvard Medical School site.
water quality experts and environmental advocates are increasingly concerned about another kind of water pollution: chemicals from prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications that get into lakes, rivers, and streams. Water also gets contaminated by perfume, cologne, skin lotions, and sunscreens that wash off people’s skin.
A study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1999 and 2000 found measurable amounts of one or more medications in 80% of the water samples drawn from a network of 139 streams in 30 states. The drugs identified included a witches’ brew of antibiotics, antidepressants, blood thinners, heart medications (ACE inhibitors, calcium-channel blockers, digoxin), hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone), and painkillers. Scores of studies have been done since. Other drugs that have been found include caffeine (which, of course, comes from many other sources besides medications); carbamazepine, an antiseizure drug; fibrates, which improve cholesterol levels; and some fragrance chemicals (galaxolide and tonalide).
Sewage treatment plants are not currently designed to remove pharmaceuticals from water. Nor are the facilities that treat water to make it drinkable. Yet a certain amount of pharmaceutical contamination is removed when water gets treated for other purposes. For example, some research shows that conventional treatment methods result in a 90% decrease in the amount of ibuprofen and naproxen in the water discharged from sewage treatment plants. On the other hand, treatment doesn’t seem to have much effect on the levels of drugs such as carbamazepine and diclofenac (a pain reliever).
In contrast to the uncertainty about human health effects, there’s quite a bit of evidence for pharmaceuticals in the water affecting aquatic life, particularly fish. Numerous studies have shown that estrogen and chemicals that behave like it have a feminizing effect on male fish and can alter female-to-male ratios. Sources of estrogen include birth control pills and postmenopausal hormone treatments, as well as the estrogen that women produce naturally and excrete. Intersex fish — creatures with both male and female sex characteristics — have been found in heavily polluted sections of the Potomac River. Studies of fish upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants have found more female and intersex fish downstream from the plants, presumably because of the higher estrogen levels in the downstream water. Other research has uncovered popular antidepressant medications concentrated in the brain tissue of fish downstream from wastewater treatment plants.
