Tipsy Fish: When Anti- Anxiety Meds Get Into Rivers

Tipsy Fish: When Anti-Anxiety Meds Get Into RiversBy: Veronique GreenwoodIn the United States, the majority of our population takes multiple types of medications. Yes, we may be the ones taking them but sometimes they affect our animals. Sometimes the medicines we take can kill animals, cripple them, or prevent reproducing. So Swedish scientists ran an experiment the test what some of the medications we take do to some animals. They used the drug oxazepam, which was discovered in the water before. They tested the drug on three different groups of perch. On the first group of perch they used no drugs, the second group of perch they used 6 times more concentration of the drug, and the last group had 500 times more concentration. They trapped the fish into boxes and opened a small door and when releasing the fish observed how long it took the fish to venture into it. The fish with more concentration moved rapidly while the one’s with less concentration moved slowly. This shows that our medicines effect animals just as it does us. It’s very dangerous for these fishes to swim in these so one way we could fix this problem is by using filtering systems. Filtering the water will keep these things away from the fishes and will keep them safe. Some barriers for this solution could be paying for the filtering systems or the filtering systems not working effectively. I think that everything that can be done to keep these animals safe and alive needs to be done, no matter how much money it costs.  

http://science.time.com/2013/02/15/tipsy-fish-when-anti-anxiety-meds-get-into-rivers/