Pharmaceuticals Polluting Rivers in Every National Park in England

Researchers have found pharmaceuticals, from antidepressants to antibiotics, in rivers in all 10 national parks in England.

While levels in parks were lower than those commonly found in urban rivers, the Peak District and Exmoor national parks were more heavily polluted than London, researchers found. In these parks, antibiotics are concentrated enough to give rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, putting swimmers at risk of contracting hard-to-treat infections.

In the Peak District and Exmoor, as well as the Lake District, South Downs, and the New Forest, pharmaceutical levels were so high as be to potentially harmful to wildlife, according to the study, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Parks often have old wastewater treatment plants that do a poor job of filtering out pharmaceuticals, researchers said, and during summer, parks see a rush of visitors who worsen pollution, either by ingesting pharmaceuticals and then urinating them or by throwing out unused medications. Rivers also run low in the summer, meaning there is less water to dilute pollution.

Study coauthor Rob Collins, of the Rivers Trust, called on officials to upgrade park treatment plants and on the public to properly dispose of unused medications. Few people, he said, “are aware of medicine take-back schemes whereby any unopened, unused, and out-of-date medicines can be taken to the local pharmacy, rather than flushed down the toilet and into the sewer system.”