Prepare to reap the whirlwind: we’re facing a public health crisis ‘second to none’:
Cape Town’s coffee culture has become an integral part not just of our city’s life, but also of the lives of starfish and filter-feeders living 40 m under the surface in Table Bay.
A recent research project led by Professor Leslie Petrik, Leader of the Environmental and Nano Science Research Group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape, has found disturbing levels of caffeine in marine life.
Professor Petrik led a research project to determine whether 12 known chemical compounds were present in our sea, and to what extent these chemicals were accumulating in our marine life. The Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa recently named Professor Petrik as the 2016 Businesswoman of the Year in the Science and Technology category.
“Imagine taking a dose of painkiller, epilepsy medication, beta blockers, diuretics and thyroid treatments and some caffeine all at once, every day, in every glass of water you drink,” she said. “That is what we are subjecting these organisms to because our sewage systems are just not designed to remove the many chemicals that we use or consume in our daily lives.”
“We know that in many of our coastal cities the sewerage effluent is directly released into the ocean, untreated. But the actual amount of chemicals which make their way into our seas is much higher than that because our standard sewage treatment is not designed to remove them.”
Chemicals in daily use in most households, for instance in shampoo, toothpaste, washing powder and flea powder as well as medications and antiseptics all are passing through our water treatment systems and end up in our environment.
“Products containing estrogen, such as birth control pills, can stop the proper development of male fish in the embryonic stage, with the result that with long term exposure to high enough concentrations an entire fish population can be wiped out within one generation,” she warned.
Not all the chemicals are making their way into the ocean. Instead they are captured in the sludge from the sewage treatment plants that may be used as a fertiliser on farmland, but it is not yet known whether these chemicals may also be making their way into our food.
“We are facing a public health crisis second to none,” she said. “Antibiotic resistance is not just caused when you don’t complete a course of pills. The combination of antibiotics and antiseptics that end up in our water systems are knocking out the microbes that are susceptible to them, but are allowing other resistant microbes to proliferate.”
Professor Petrik’s research unit has been developing water treatment systems based on advanced oxidation which generates free radicals that can attack and break down the hazardous molecules. She would like to see more of these systems being added to water treatment plants, but she believes that the onus is on us all to change our behaviour.
There are over 80 000 different chemical compounds being released by our daily activities, and we just don’t know what they break down into. There are secondary compounds being formed, and we have no idea what damage they can do, or how rapidly their effects will be felt.
“We can’t wait for the government to change the laws, or for the councils to build new or better water treatment plants,” she said. “We need to start thinking about what chemicals we are using daily and take responsibility for minimizing our consumption or suffer the very dire consequences.”
Editor’s note: The Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) of South Africa has announced the winners of the 2016 Businesswoman of the Year Award (BWOYA). This year, for the first time, the awards also recognise women in the fields of education, social entreprenuership and science and technology. Prof Leslie Petrik, won the Science and Technology category. As a scientist, Petrik has worked closely with the water, power, mining and hydrocarbon processing industry to better manage waste and effluents to find feasible routes for its reuse or water recovery. Since 2003, she has graduated 18 PhD, 42 MSc students and mentored 20 Post-doctoral fellows who have entered the marketplace with sought after skills. She has also published 116 peer reviewed journal articles and presented 251 conference papers or posters at local and international conferences, written 13 book chapters, 56 technical reports to industry and holds several patents.
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