Scientists find opioids in Puget Sound mussels

[jpak]

Source: Portland Press Herald

SEATTLE — Scientists who track pollution have discovered traces of the pain reliever oxycodone in some Puget Sound mussels.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife obtained clean mussels from Penn Cove on Whidbey Island and put them in different areas to test for water contamination, KIRO-TV reported this week.

Scientists worked with the Puget Sound Institute to analyze the data and discovered three out of 18 locations came back positive for trace amounts of oxycodone.

Two were near Bremerton’s shipyard and one was in Elliot Bay near Harbor Island in Seattle.

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Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05/26/scientists-find-opioids-in-puget-sound-mussels/

[TexasTowelie]

1. So there was no pain in the mussels?

[Kilgore]

2. Were the clams happy?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Did they eat all the opiods in the water?

They're so shellfish.

[marble falls]

4. Medicine Disposal: Questions and Answers

https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/EnsuringSafeUseofMedicine/SafeDisposalofMedicines/ucm186188.htm


4: Does flushing the medicines on this list down the toilet or sink pose a risk to human health or the environment? How have considerations about medicines in the environment informed FDA’s recommendations about the disposal of medicines from the home?

FDA is aware of reports of very low but measurable levels of medicines in surface waters such as rivers and streams, and to a lesser extent in drinking water. Disposal of these select few medicines by flushing would contribute only a small fraction of the total amount of medicine found in our surface and drinking water. The majority of medicines found in water are a result of the body’s natural routes of drug elimination (in urine or feces).

Based on the available data, FDA believes that the known risk of harm to humans from accidental exposure to these medicines far outweighs any potential risk to humans or the environment from flushing them.

To date, scientists have found no evidence of harmful effects to human health from medicines in the environment. In addition, to better understand the human health and ecological risks from medicines in our water, FDA works with other agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Still, to reduce overall medicine levels in our waters, FDA recommends that consumers first consider disposing of these drugs as quickly as possible through medicine take-back programs or DEA-authorized collectors before flushing down the sink or toilet.

[yallerdawg]

7. It's mainly in the urine and feces?

Mussels, clams, and oysters are true 'bottom feeders.'

Which is why we have warnings about consuming them, especially raw.

Of course, for many they are so addictive, they can't stop!

[marble falls]

8. Yes. I love oysters, too. Just one more thing to think about.

[kwassa]

5. Mussel relaxation

[relogic]

6. Dreadful reality

It’s beyond disgusting and repugnant to know opioids and countless foreign substances that injure the human biochemical systems have so permeated our vital waters. Think of all the careless corporate water supply companies (Flint, MI) anyone? This is a canary in the mines moment among a litany of them since EPA was founded.

From plastic particulates in most marine life, BHP in breast milk, and neurologically damaging lead in tap water- we’re literally in deep s**t.

[Blues Heron]

9. I cannot stop eating these mussels!

They're like crack!

[samnsara]

10. Penn Cove mussels? I used to live on Whidbey and saw the mussel farms daily.

...could NEVER eat one tho....

[Javaman]

11. LOLOLOL! nt

[SeattleVet]

12. The areas in question have had a ban on harvesting for quite a while.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a good map showing where it is OK to harvest shellfish:

https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/biotoxin/biotoxin.html

For many years they have been detecting pretty much anything that people put into their bodies, and that water treatment plants cannot remove. During late October through December there is a huge spike in the amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice in the water (and the filter feeders) in this area, due to all of the pumpkin pie spice flavored coffee drinks and other foods that people are consuming. Caffeine is always present at relatively high levels, as are birth control pills. Metabolites of THC and CBD are being seen in slightly elevated levels.

Bremerton and Harbor Island are well known to be highly contaminated with a LOT of things. Harbor Island is near the outflow of the Duwamish, which has been on the EPA Superfund Site for many years (it is one of the most polluted waterways in the country).

If you put it into your body, it will eventually become detectable at some level in the water (and filter-feeding marine organisms).

Of course, being detectable and being hazardous are two vastly different things. We are able to detect things in parts-per-trillion...and the allowable level of something even as toxic as arsenic is 10,000ppt in drinking water.

I'm still going to enjoy my oysters, clams, mussels, and other seafood.

[TheFrenchRazor]

13. yay!! more opioid hysteria! nt