Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of research by the Environment Department at the University of York which found that worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants contain traces of many drugs, including anti-depressants.

Researchers at the University of York have published in a peer reviewed journal that earthworms collected at sewage treatment plants contained mean concentrations of 26.20±4.70 ng/g of the anti-depressant fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) (Bean et al. 2017). In a recent paper concerning the effects of low, environmental relevant, concentrations of Prozac on the courtship of starlings (Whitlock et al. 2018), they also refer to work by other researchers showing earthworms at sewage treatment plants to contain other contaminants including pharmaceuticals (Markman et al. 2007 & 2008). There are many other studies globally showing uptake of pharmaceuticals into a variety of invertebrate species.

The uptake of pharmaceutical residues from sewage, sewage effluent and sewage sludge has been shown to negatively impact invertebrates themselves and provides a clear route of exposure to many species of wildlife including birds and bats. The full significance of this is still being assessed.

References

Bean, T. G., Arnold, K. E., Lane, J., Bergstrom, E., Thomas-Oates, J. E., Rattner, B., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2017). Predictive framework for estimating exposure of birds to pharmaceuticals. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3771

Markman S,Guschina I,Barnsley S,Buchanan K,Pascoe D,et al. (2007) Endocrine disrupting chemicals accumulate in earthworms exposed to sewage effluent. Chemosphere 70: 119–125.

Markman S, Leitner S, Catchpole C, Barnsley S, Müller CT, Pascoe D, et al. (2008) Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1674. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001674

Sophia E. Whitlock, M. Glória Pereira, Richard F. Shore, Julie Lane, Kathryn E. Arnold. Environmentally relevant exposure to an antidepressant alters courtship behaviours in a songbird. Chemosphere, 2018; 211: 17 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074

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