And for a few reasons, including that treatment plants are not keeping up with the times and the pace of today's antidepressant use. The authors note that the percentage of Americans taking antidepressants, for instance, rose 65 percent between 1999-2002 and 2011-14, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.</s>A new study might depress anyone concerned with Great Lakes water quality.

Antidepressant drugs, making their way through an increasing number of people’s bodies, getting excreted in small amounts into their toilets, and moving through the wastewater treatment process to lakes and rivers, are being found in multiple Great Lakes fish species’ brains, new research by the University of Buffalo has found.

Researchers detected high concentrations of both the active ingredients and metabolites — byproducts of the parent drug — of popular antidepressant pharmaceuticals including Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa and Sarafem in the brains of fish caught in the Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Affected species included smallmouth and largemouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white and yellow perch, walleye, bowfin and steelhead. While the concentrations aren’t potentially harmful to humans eating the fish, they are problematic, said University at Buffalo chemistry professor Diana Aga, the lead author of the study published Aug. 16 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned,” she said.

Previous research has shown antidepressants in water create “suicidal shrimp” that swim toward light instead of away from it, making them vulnerable to predator fish and birds, Aga said.

“Other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behavior of fish, or their survival instincts,” Aga said. “Some fish won’t acknowledge the presence of predators as much.”

That has the potential to affect delicate ecological balances in the Great Lakes, already under siege from invasive species. Ultimately, it could disrupt the sport fishing that fuels a multibillion-dollar industry in Michigan.

More: ‘Bare metal’ exposed on parts of underwater Straits of Mackinac oil pipeline

Prior to her research, Aga expected that higher concentrations of the drugs would be found in larger fish, predators higher in the food web, due to bioaccumulation, a process by which big fish, eating medium-sized fish, that eat smaller fish, amplifies the concentration of contaminants each step of the way.

But that wasn’t the case with the fish studied, “which means they are not getting it by eating smaller fish; they’re getting it from being in the water,” she said.

Sertraline, the active ingredient in Zoloft, was found at levels estimated 20 times higher than levels in Niagara River water. And levels of norsertraline, the drug’s breakdown product, were even greater, reaching concentrations often hundreds of times higher than that found in the river. That means the drugs appear to be accumulating in the fish over their prolonged exposures to them, Aga said.

Concern for pharmaceutical contamination of lakes and rivers has risen with the emerging technological ability to detect the drugs in very small quantities in water bodies — and as use of the prescription drugs has exploded.

The percentage of Americans taking antidepressants rose 65% between 2002 and 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. From 2011 to 2014, some 12.7% of Americans age 12 or older had taken antidepressant medication within the past month.

Most wastewater treatment plants don’t screen for such drugs, only screening for waste solids and treating to kill E. coli bacteria.

“There is no way I could tell, because I am not measuring for those compounds,” said Sree Mullapudi, director of wastewater operations and compliance at the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority. The utility provides wastewater treatment for Ypsilanti city and township, and seven other townships in the region, processing more than 8 billion gallons of sewage per year at its plant near Willow Run Airport.

If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or Michigan Department of Environmental Quality confirmed negative impacts to the ecosystem from antidepressants, regulatory revisions would likely occur compelling wastewater treatment plants to implement filtration for those chemicals, Mullapudi said. But in an industry focused on meeting state and federal regulatory requirements, unless and until such a governmental mandate happens, few treatment plants would have the financial wherewithal to unilaterally take action, he said.

Noted Aga, “These plants are focused on removing nitrogen, phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon, but there are so many other chemicals that are not prioritized that impact our environment. As a result, wildlife are exposed to all of these chemicals.

“Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains.”

Aga said she will be partnering with fish biologists to look at the minimum levels at which exposures to antidepressants affect fish behavior and biology.

Contact Keith Matheny: 313-222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @keithmatheny.</s>It seems like fish are joining the crisis of bingeing on pills. Human antidepressants were found in several fish species living in the Great Lakes region, causing alarm.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo found traces of active ingredients from antidepressant medications such as Zoloft and Prozac in the brains of bowfin, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white perch, walleye, steelhead and yellow perch fish in the Niagara River, US News and World Report states. The river links Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.

Diana Aga, lead author on the study, said, “These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains.” It’s troubling for humans and the environment alike. She added, “It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.” The highest accumulation of chemicals was found in the brains of fish, followed by the liver, muscle and gonads.

The fish are getting exposed to these chemicals via the contamination of their natural habitat. Wastewater from treatment plants in the area flow through the river. While these factories generally focus on killing disease-causing bacteria and are removing solid waste, antidepressants in the urine of people are overlooked and not removed from the wastewater. The Niagara River receives wastewater from treatment plants located along its shores and on Lake Erie.

The number of Americans taking antidepressants has shot up by 65% between 1999 and 2002 and from 2011 to 2014, reports the National Center for Health Statistics.

The buildup of these chemicals in fish is not a threat to humans, but it poses a danger to the environment. These antidepressants could modify a fish’s feeding behavior and survival instinct, upsetting the “delicate balance between species that helps to keep the ecosystem stable,” according to Randolph Singh, co-author on the study.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.</s>In a new study, researchers detected high concentrations of these drugs and their metabolized remnants in the brain tissue of 10 fish species found in the Niagara River.

This vital conduit connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, via Niagara Falls. The discovery of antidepressants in aquatic life in the river raises serious environmental concerns, says lead scientist Diana Aga, PhD, the Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

"These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains," Aga says. "It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.

"These drugs could affect fish behavior. We didn't look at behavior in our study, but other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behavior of fish or their survival instincts. Some fish won't acknowledge the presence of predators as much."

If changes like these occur in the wild, they have the potential to disrupt the delicate balance between species that helps to keep the ecosystem stable, says study co-author Randolph Singh, PhD, a recent UB graduate from Aga's lab.

"The levels of antidepressants found do not pose a danger to humans who eat the fish, especially in the U.S., where most people do not eat organs like the brain," Singh says. "However, the risk that the drugs pose to biodiversity is real, and scientists are just beginning to understand what the consequences might be."

The research team included other scientists from UB, Ramkhamhaeng University and Khon Kaen University, both in Thailand, and SUNY Buffalo State. The study was published on Aug. 16 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

A dangerous cocktail of antidepressants in the water

Aga has spent her career developing techniques for detecting contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, antibiotics and endocrine disrupters in the environment.

This is a field of growing concern, especially as the use of such chemicals expands. The percentage of Americans taking antidepressants, for instance, rose 65 percent between 1999-2002 and 2011-14, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Wastewater treatment facilities have failed to keep pace with this growth, typically ignoring these drugs, which are then released into the environment, Aga says.

Her new study looked for a variety of pharmaceutical and personal care product chemicals in the organs and muscles of 10 fish species: smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white perch, walleye, bowfin, steelhead and yellow perch.

Antidepressants stood out as a major problem: These drugs or their metabolites were found in the brains of every fish species the scientists studied.

The highest concentration of a single compound was found in a rock bass, which had about 400 nanograms of norsertraline—a metabolite of sertraline, the active ingredient in Zoloft—per gram of brain tissue. This was in addition to a cocktail of other compounds found in the same fish, including citalopram, the active ingredient in Celexa, and norfluoxetine, a metabolite of the active ingredient in Prozac and Sarafem.

More than half of the fish brain samples had norsertraline levels of 100 nanograms per gram or higher. In addition, like the rock bass, many of the fish had a medley of antidepressant drugs and metabolites in their brains.

Evidence that antidepressants can change fish behavior generally comes from laboratory studies that expose the animals to higher concentrations of drugs than what is found in the Niagara River. But the findings of the new study are still worrisome: The antidepressants that Aga's team detected in fish brains had accumulated over time, often reaching concentrations that were several times higher than the levels in the river.

In the brains of smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rock bass, white bass and walleye, sertraline was found at levels that were estimated to be 20 or more times higher than levels in river water. Levels of norsertraline, the drug's breakdown product, were even greater, reaching concentrations that were often hundreds of times higher than that found in the river.

Scientists have not done enough research yet to understand what amount of antidepressants poses a risk to animals, or how multiple drugs might interact synergistically to influence behavior, Aga says.

Wastewater treatment is behind the times

The study raises concerns regarding wastewater treatment plants, whose operations have not kept up with the times, says Aga, a member of the UB RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute.

In general, wastewater treatment focuses narrowly on killing disease-causing bacteria and on extracting solid matter such as human excrement. Antidepressants, which are found in the urine of people who use the drugs, are largely ignored, along with other chemicals of concern that have become commonplace, Aga says.

"These plants are focused on removing nitrogen, phosphorus, and dissolved organic carbon but there are so many other chemicals that are not prioritized that impact our environment," she says. "As a result, wildlife is exposed to all of these chemicals. Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains."

The problem is exacerbated, Singh says, by sewage overflows that funnel large quantities of untreated water into rivers and lakes. In August, for example, The Buffalo News reported that since May of 2017, a half billion gallons of combined sewage and storm water had flowed into local waterways, including the Niagara River.

More information: Prapha Arnnok et al. Selective Uptake and Bioaccumulation of Antidepressants in Fish from Effluent-Impacted Niagara River, Environmental Science & Technology (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b02912</s>Human antidepressants are building up in the brains of bass, walleye and several other fish common to the Great Lakes region, scientists say.

In a new study, researchers detected high concentrations of these drugs and their metabolized remnants in the brain tissue of 10 fish species found in the Niagara River.

This vital conduit connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, via Niagara Falls. The discovery of antidepressants in aquatic life in the river raises serious environmental concerns, says lead scientist Diana Aga, PhD, the Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

“These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains,” Aga says. “It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.</s>New research has revealed that human antidepressants are building up in the brains of bass, walleye and other fish common to the Great Lakes region.

High concentrations of these drugs were detected in the brain tissue of 10 fish species in the Niagara River.

Researchers say that ingredients from antidepressants are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, accumulating in fish brains and potentially affecting their their feeding behavior and survival instincts.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, was conducted at the Niagara River, which connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, via Niagara Falls.

HOW ANTIDEPRESSANTS END UP IN FISH New research has revealed that human antidepressants are building up in the brains of bass, walleye and other fish common to the Great Lakes region. Wastewater treatment facilities have not kept pace with the growth of antidepressant use. In general, wastewater treatment focuses narrowly on killing disease-causing bacteria and on extracting solid matter such as human excrement. But antidepressants, which are found in the urine of people who use the drugs, are largely ignored, along with other worrisome chemicals that have become common. 'As a result, wildlife is exposed to all of these chemicals,' says Dr Diana Aga, the lead author of the study and a Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. 'Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains.'

The discovery of antidepressants in aquatic life in the river raises serious environmental concerns, says lead author of the study Dr Diana Aga, a Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

'These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains,' Dr Aga says.

'It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.

'We didn't look at behavior in our study, but other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behavior of fish or their survival instincts.

'Some fish won't acknowledge the presence of predators as much.'

Dr Randolph Singh, a co-author of the study, says that if changes like these occur in the wild, they have the potential to disrupt the delicate balance between species that help to keep the ecosystem stable.

'The levels of antidepressants found do not pose a danger to humans who eat the fish, especially in the US, where most people do not eat organs like the brain,' Dr Singh says.

'However, the risk that the drugs pose to biodiversity is real, and scientists are just beginning to understand what the consequences might be.'

The study looked for a range of pharmaceutical and personal care product chemicals in the organs and muscles of 10 fish species: smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white perch, walleye, bowfin, steelhead and yellow perch.

It found that antidepressants were a major problem: These drugs and their metabolites (byproducts) were found in the brains of all ten of the fish species studied.

In particular, the highest concentration of a single compound was found in a rock bass, which had 400 nanograms of norsertraline per gram of brain tissue.

Norsertraline is a metabolite of sertraline - the active ingredient in Zoloft, a drug that is used to treat depression, OCD, PTSD and other mental health disorders.

This was in addition to many other compounds found in the same fish, including citalopram, the active ingredient in Celexa (an anti-depression drug), and norfluoxetine, a metabolite of the active ingredient in Prozac and Sarafem, which treat depression, OCD, bulimia, and panic disorder.

More than half of the fish brain samples has norsetraline levels of 100 nanograms per gram or higher, and many of the fish had a medley of other antidepressant drugs and metabolites in their brains.

Evidence that antidepressants can change fish behavior generally comes from laboratory studies that expose the animals to higher concentrations of drugs than what is found in the Niagara River.

But still, the researchers say that the findings of the study are worrisome because the antidepressants that Dr Aga's team detected in fish brains had accumulated over time, often reaching concentrations that were many times higher than the levels in the river.

For example, in the brains of smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rock bass, white bass and walleye, sertraline was detected at levels that were about 20 or more times higher than levels in the river.

And levels of norsertraline, the drug's breakdown byproduct, were even greater, reaching concentrations that were hundreds of times higher than those in the river.

While the findings are worrisome, Dr Aga says that researchers have not yet done enough to understand what amount of antidepressants poses a risk to animals, or how multiple drugs might interact synergistically to influence behavior, Dr Aga says.

Dr Aga has spent her career developing techniques for detecting contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, antibiotics and endocrine disrupters in the environment.

This is a field of growing concern, particularly in light of the fact that the use of these chemicals is expanding.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of Americans taking antidepressants has risen 65 per cent between 1999 and 2002, and 2011-2014.

Dr Aga says that wastewater treatment facilities have not kept pace with this growth, ignoring these drugs which are then released into the environment.

In general, wastewater treatment focuses narrowly on killing disease-causing bacteria and on extracting solid matter such as human excrement.

But antidepressants, which are found in the urine of people who use the drugs, are largely ignored, along with other worrisome chemicals that have become common.

'These plants are focused on removing nitrogen, phosphorus, and dissolved organic carbon but there are so many other chemicals that are not prioritized that impact our environment,' says Dr Aga.

'As a result, wildlife is exposed to all of these chemicals.

'Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains.'

Dr Singh says that the problem is exacerbated by sewage overflows that funnel large amounts of untreated water into rivers and lakes.

Since May 2017, for example, a half billion gallons of combined sewage and storm water had flowed into local waterways, including the Niagara River.</s>A new study published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal found that high concentrations of antidepressants were building up in the brain tissue of bass, walleye and several other common fish found in the Great Lakes region.

Discovered in the brain tissue of 10 fish species in the Niagara River, researchers suspected the antidepressants were spewing from nearby wastewater plants.

"These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains," Diana Aga, lead scientist, said. "It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned."

According to Aga, though her study didn't directly examine the effect of drugs on fish behavior, the presence of the drugs could have an effect on fish survival instincts, as some swimmers won't react to a nearby predator.

In one fish alone, a rock bass, the scientists found 400 nanograms of norsertraline per gram of brain tissue. Norsertraline is an active ingredient in Zoloft, which is used to treat depression, OCD and PTSD.

In addition to the norsertraline, the same fish had traces of citalopram and norfluoxetine, which are found in Celexa, an antidepressant, and Prozac and Sarafem, which also treat depression, OCD, bulimia and panic disorders.

More than half of the fish collected by the group had at least 100 nanograms per gram or higher of norsertraline in their brain tissue along with several other antidepressant ingredients.

 

Though the findings do raise concern, the officials added that more studies must be conducted in order to get the full picture of what's going on in the region.

The research team, aided by the efforts of scientists at Thailand's Ramkhamhaeng University and Khon Kaen University, found their specimens in the Niagara River that connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, two the of five great lakes.</s>A nonprofit organization is warning Michigan residents to stay safe as they head to the Great Lakes for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project announced Friday, Sept. 1 there have been 68 reported drownings in the Great Lakes so far this year, with 33 occurring in Lake Michigan.

In August alone, Lake Michigan had eight drownings and Lake Superior had five drownings.

“Please be safe on the Great Lakes this holiday weekend,” said Dave Benjamin, GLSRP executive director. “There are always hazards around any body of water.”

Overall since 2010, the GLSRP has tracked 605 drownings in the Great Lakes.

The organization said because the Great Lakes consist of eight states, five lakes, two countries and 10,000 miles of coastlines, drowning reporting requirements are inconsistent and vary.

They hope to create a unified database to help gather information and track drowning incidents to increase accuracy.</s>Our increased use of antidepressants is having a knock-on effect on nature: scientists have found evidence of these drugs in the brain tissue of 10 different species of fish in the Great Lakes region.

Not only does it threaten the biodiversity of the lakes, the researchers say, it can also cause harmful changes to the behaviour of the fish.

The international team of researchers says there's no danger to humans from eating these fish, but that more needs to be done to get these antidepressant chemicals out of our wastewater before they have a chance to damage marine life beyond repair.

"These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains," says lead researcher Diana Aga from the University of Buffalo. "It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned."

"These drugs could affect fish behaviour. We didn't look at behaviour in our study, but other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behaviour of fish or their survival instincts."

That previous research suggests, for example, that some fish become less aware of predators when hit with antidepressant chemicals, although the reaction to the drugs varies between species.

The team looked at ten different species of fish in the Niagara River, a crucial channel connecting Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.

In all of the species – smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white perch, walleye, bowfin, steelhead, and yellow perch – they found evidence of antidepressants.

The highest concentration of drugs was found in a rock bass: 400 nanograms of norsertraline per gram of brain tissue. Norsertraline is produced in the body by sertraline, the active ingredient in Zoloft.

These chemical levels aren't as high as the ones artificially generated in marine species for related research, but they're still very worrying for scientists.

What's more, the concentrations of drugs in the brains of the fish were significantly higher than the concentrations in the river water, suggesting the fish are picking up more and more of the chemicals over time.

For the researchers, it's important that wastewater plants do more to filter out chemicals like those from antidepressants, which appear in the urine of the people taking them.

These plants generally concentrate on killing bacteria and removing solids and faeces, but need to address drugs that are often being ignored, says the team behind the study.

"These plants are focused on removing nitrogen, phosphorus, and dissolved organic carbon but there are so many other chemicals that are not prioritised that impact our environment," says Aga.

"As a result, wildlife is exposed to all of these chemicals. Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains."

As for exactly how these chemicals might damage fish or change their behaviour, or what the knock-on effect might be to the broader ecosystem, scientists just don't have enough information to go off yet – but their concerns are very real.

With antidepressant use rising steadily in the US and other countries, the problem needs to be addressed before more damage is done. Let's hope people can get the help they need and our rivers and lakes can be kept free of the chemical fall-out.

"The risk that the drugs pose to biodiversity is real, and scientists are just beginning to understand what the consequences might be," says one of the team, Randolph Singh from the University of Buffalo.

The research has been published in Environmental Science & Technology.</s>(WLNS) – The Great Lakes are natural wonders and a big part of Michigan’s identity.

People flock to the beaches to enjoy the water.

But that attraction also includes danger.

According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project there have been 68 drownings in the Great Lakes this summer.

In August Lake Michigan had 8 drownings and Lake Superior had 5 drownings.

“Please be safe on the Great Lakes this holiday weekend,” said Dave Benjamin, GLSRP executive director. “There are always hazards around any body of water.”

Since 2010 605 people have drowned in the five Great Lakes.

Always be aware of water conditions and never swim alone.

It’s not unusual to have dangerous rip tides and strong currents in the lakes.

If you are swimming and get caught in a rip tide or current don’t fight it.

Relax and float with the current.

When you feel it lessen you can swim out of it and head for shore.

You might have floated hundreds of yards away from where you started but you can walk back, safe and sound.
Researchers report, in the Environmental Science & Technology journal, the discovery of antidepressant concentrations in 10 kinds of fish in the Niagara River, which links to the Great Lakes via Lakes Erie and Ontario. Speculated causes include inadequate treatment of water re-introduced into said bodies of water.