A team of Brazilian scientists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and other scientific institutions has discovered signs that the country’s coastal waters are seriously contaminated with cocaine. The drug is beginning to have a devastating effect on the local longnose shark population. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Total Environmental Science (STE).
The team analyzed 13 predatory fish samples and found high concentrations of cocaine in each of them. In addition, a significant amount of the drug’s main metabolite, benzoylecgonine, was also found in the organisms of marine inhabitants.
Levels of both substances in the sharks’ bodies were 100 times higher than normal.
It is known that water-soluble cocaine can inhibit cell viability and increase DNA fragmentation in aquatic organisms.
Scientists have noted that environmental pollution from cocaine remains a major problem for Brazil, as Brazil is one of the largest exporters of this illegal substance and clandestine drug laboratories operate on its territory. The waste from these industries ends up in the water. In addition, cocaine packages are sometimes lost or deliberately thrown into the ocean during smuggling.
Earlier scientists I learnedIn Latin America’s largest port, the concentration of dissolved cocaine in water was found to be comparable to the concentration of caffeine, an extremely common anthropogenic pollutant.
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Source: Gazeta
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