Drugs in water

A study from

, in West London, has revealed that the combined effects of a cocktail of chemicals that act as oestrogens - such as the contraceptive pill, toiletries, household cleaning fluids and fertilizers - could affect our waterways to a far greater extent than previously thought.

Oestrogenic chemicals are believed to impact the fertility, reproduction and gender of aquatic life, and also have the potential to affect reproductive parameters in humans. The research highlights the shortcomings associated with current pollution risk assessment, which is based on assessment of each single chemical’s risk, and calls into question the need for a wholesale re-assessment of the current EU regulation on acceptable chemical levels.

The study, which involved a European team of research partners led by Professor John Sumpter of the Institute for the Environment at Brunel University, investigated the effect of a group of oestrogenic chemicals that have been associated with adverse reproductive effects in aquatic organisms, using freshwater minnows as a test species.