This is pure clickbait. Sure, opioids are detectable in mussels from Puget Sound. That reflects the sad fact that Puget Sound is horribly polluted. I suspect that levels of some pollutants are high enough to damage human and ecosystem health. Organomercury compounds, for example. But what gets the focus is opioids. Because it's good clickbait.<p>Edit: Following pesfandiar's link about caffeine pollution in the Pacific Northwest, I found this about Puget Sound:[0]<p>> Of all the flavors trickling downstream, artificial vanilla dominates the sound, Keil said. For instance, the team found an average of about six milligrams of artificial vanilla per liter of water sampled.<p>Yes, 6 mg/L in water! That's not trace contamination. But "Puget Sound is vanilla flavored!" isn't so scarey, I guess.<p>0) <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091112-drinking-water-cocaine.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091112-drin...</a>
I live on the water in West Seattle close to a park, and by the shore we found some seaweed that we wanted to harvest and maybe, potentially eat.<p>I got curious about where in the sound is safe to eat things from. Pretty much the entire sound is polluted and a hazard.<p><a href="https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/biotoxin/biotoxin.html" rel="nofollow">https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/biotoxin/biotoxin.html</a>
>high enough oxycodone levels for the shellfish to test positive<p>That doesn't really tell me anything. Are they testing by taste or by some fancy test that can detect down to 1 ppq?
Key para...<p>"What we eat and what we excrete goes into the Puget Sound," Jennifer Lanksbury, a biologist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told CBS News affiliate KIRO.<p>...so enough crap going into the water from the local population to be picked up in the Mussel samples... Crazy!
As a member of the community to whom this particular mussel economy is very important, this is disconcerting. At the same time, it's worth mentioning that the mussels in question were cultivated out here in cleaner waters and then _transported_ to urban shorelines.<p>The results are a possible window into what's to come if we don't curb our rate of pollution in the region, but not representative of what's currently in the mussels that get to your plate.
I’ve been studying / beginning to practice permaculture for a little while now and one thing that is often discussed is the subject of human waste.<p>When you take food out of the ground and consume it, you’ve removed some fertility from the ground. Either you have animals put it back in as manure, or you use some kind of synthetic fertilizer.<p>When the food goes through your body, you’re also generating manure. But typically we ship it off to some central location where it becomes a massive collection of toxic waste.<p>The permaculture argument is that if we kept as much of that waste on site as possible, we’d be recycling nutrients rather than not only wasting them, but creating toxic hazards due to the size of the collections.<p>On a small scale, think of how fertile the ground over a septic field is — wildflowers and grass will grow like crazy.<p>The more, er, devoted will go as far as installing composting toilets.<p>The reason I think this is relevant is that when the waste stays local, you’re much more conscious about what’s in it. If you have a septic system, you really don’t want pills going into it — especially if you also have well water. When it’s being flushed to some unknown location it’s easy to not give it a second thought.
Does this 100% mean that humans are consuming high amounts of these opioids or could there be another explanation? Like someone dumped a boat of pills into the sound.
on the up side at least it may make them as happy as clams[1] reproducing per the 1998 Ignobles[2]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Prozac+works+on+clams+and+mussels.-a020212410" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Prozac+works+on+clams+and+mus...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig1998" rel="nofollow">https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig1998</a>
What's interesting is that opiods are probably not Seattle's most prominent poison of choice with traces in Puget Sound: <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120730-caffeinated-seas-pacific-northwest-caffeine-coffee-science/" rel="nofollow">https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120730-caff...</a>
Is oxycodone altered in anyway by human consumption or do we excrete the same substance that is put into our veins?<p>I don't know enough about pharmacology, but I would think that this is more indicative of the dumping of unused opioids than use of.
Could also mean people are throwing them down the drain. Seems that standard issue for post op pain prescription here in PNW is 20 oxy. I don't know anyone who has taken more than a few. 20 is a lot.
Not too long ago sex hormones were detectable in seawater. Apparently some women excrete of their birth control medications. Human drug use has far reaching side effects.
Another worthless, alarmist, innumerate article. Without data on the levels of opioids found, this article is <i>worthless</i>; it literally has no value, so to speak.
As someone who has had frequent kidney stones, I have found that many painkiller prescriptions are unnecessary. Kidney stones are more painful than childbirth and I’ve been hospitalized for then before. But prescription painkillers rarely get rid of the pain.<p>People seem to be reluctant to mix medications for fear of drug interactions. They want a strong dose of one substance.<p>But nothing has worked for me better than mixing acetaminophen with ibuprofen or with naproxen. All are cheap, available over the counter, and have fewer side effects than prescription pain killers.<p>I also find that, after the initial pain subsides, I can more quickly reduce the dosage of these drugs than I could with prescription painkillers.<p>By all means, use oxy if you need it. But please consider trying alternatives first so you can avoid addiction.