Cocktail of Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Chemicals Pollute Oceans

"Cocktails" of Chemicals Polluting Our Environment

Research conducted by Tobias Porsbring of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, has demonstrated that chemicals assumed to be non-toxic in isolation can pose an environmental threat when in combination with other chemicals. When European and other authorities assess the environmental risks of chemicals they often look at them individually but they do not work alone in the environment. As it states on the University of Gothenburg website, “Chemicals, drugs and personal-care products that accompany wastewater often end up in the oceans, where they form a “cocktail” of chemicals. This “cocktail-effect” may be more harmful than the individual chemicals alone.”

Tobias Porsbring studied natural communities of microalgae along the Swedish west coast and found that the levels of clotrimazole (a common ingredient used in over-the-counter skin creams) measured in the environment, in combination with other substances found in the ocean, such as propranolol (a drug to lower blood pressure), triclosan (an anti-bacterial agent commonly found in soap and deodorants), fluoxetine (an anti-depressant pharmaceutical) and zinc pyrithione (found in anti-dandruff shampoos) have an adverse impact on the reproduction and growth of organisms.

“The levels of clotrimazole that are measured in the environment affect the synthesis of sterols in the algae, and these are important in several functions in the algal cells. The growth and reproduction of the algae are disturbed. Single-cell microalgae are the fundamental basis of the ocean food chain, and the use of clotrimazole thus may affect the complete ocean ecosystem,” says Tobias Porsbring.

In chemical safety evaluations the impact of a single substance is usually only taken into account but this may lead to an underestimation of the environmental risks says Porsbring, “What we and others have observed is that even though chemicals are present at concentrations that are low enough to not provoke a discernible effect on their own they all add up to a clear combination effect.”

Source: University of Gothenburg 
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