If you’re having flounder from Florida for dinner this week, you could be having your dosage of Lipitor, Xanax and a host of other prescription medications found in fish off the Florida coast, a new study finds, CNN reports.
The report, from Florida International University and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, a Miami-nonprofit focused on conservation, found that in the 93 samples they studied, the bonefish from Florida had measurable amounts of, on average 7 different pharmaceuticals; one had samples of 17 different drugs.
“These findings are truly alarming,” Jennifer Rehage, a coastal and fish ecologist and associate professor at FIU, said in the release. “Pharmaceuticals are an invisible threat, unlike algal blooms or turbid waters. Yet these results tell us that they are a formidable threat to our fisheries, and highlight the pressing need to address our longstanding wastewater infrastructure issues.”