Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 4 February 2009 | Nature 457, 640-641 (2009) | doi:10.1038/457640a
News
India's drug problem
Chemists show how waste-water contamination affects ecosystem.
Waste flowing out of a treatment plant near Hyderabad in India pollutes the region's waters with some of the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment. In a paper being released online this week, researchers in Sweden report how this effluent has serious adverse effects on the development of tadpoles and zebrafish1.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
This report shows that Patancheru and nearby area is really polluted, but this not only case with Patancheru, everywear in India where big industries are located they leave their wastages, effluents in nearby rivers, waterbodies and pollute it without any concsence of peoples. They mean only business,no policy to serve peoples, save nature and this is supported by our judiciary systems.There are many such examples Mumbai's Mithi Nullah which river once time is example of this.Peoples like M. Narayan Reddy support this openly.
This is another evidence for our carelessness for saving our environment besides the inefficiency of the industry as well as government administration in execution and enforcement of the set safety norms. This is the high time to rise to the call and start preventing further deterioration which will reach irreversible stage, if left unchecked.
It's because of our stupid politicians
When I worked as a chemist in a small scale industry in R and D division of a drug company, I always wanted to write a public confession of a chemist to the middles of Times of India. We shut down our production the day environmental guys came for inspection, they demanded that we did so, and those guys demanded cash and collected clean water from the tap for inspection purposes. When I confronted my boss about whom he is fooling as by being corrupt we are fooling ourselves. His answer was that he too had similar dream of having environmentally clean surroundings, but could not survive system. I worked for sometime in a small factory in Roha, where beautiful river Kundalika passes by. But giant industries like, Reliance etc. had their factories. Often in the evening sulphur dioxide was released into the air in the evening, even though I was few miles away from the factory, I choked due to the acid in the atmosphere. I watched dogs barely survive after drinking polluted water from factory outlets that went straight in to the river. Just a year and half ago I travelled by Konkan Express to Kerala and we did pass Roha. There was a yellow trash coming out of one company and slowly spreading around in the river water. Sulphuric acid factory was spewing terrible gas out of its chimneys? That was appalling. Surely we could do something to save the environment. But I don?t think all blame should go to Indians alone. I also remember my boss made European and US trips and came back and told proudly that we clinched deals with CIBA and other companies for supplying some of the chemicals. I felt sad about these clinches and deals. Sure, people in these countries did not want their surroundings to be polluted. Plus, people want cheaper drugs, so at the environmental cost to India, Indians produce cheap drugs and chemicals. So don?t you think that the people who are buying chemicals from India have responsibility too? Sure, 20 $/Kg of any drug would unreasonable price. Oh, also my company had advisors who were professors from esteemed university of India, but they were totally clueless about impacts on environment, but were just interested in making extra buck. They never advised on environmental problems caused by the chemicals they suggested us to use and also did not even bother about workers health. One of the chemical was lachrymose and workers after working two days with this chemical in the evening shifts could not see in bright light. I finally succeeded in convincing that the production is being harmed because workers are being affected. I hope the younger generation of chemists in India, are lot more aware of their surroundings. Meena Haribal
This is the globalization era all companies are looking for quik profits.Chemical industries is bound to produce effluents which are of toxic to human health even though they are detoxified to the last product co2. China is none to produce any chemicals ( drugs , pesticides fine chemicals ) at very cheaper rate without bothering about enverinment pollution so the cost of the chemicals from china is very cheap than other countries so to compet with this the developing countries are neglecting the environmental aspects this is what the globilsation of the world economy has given to human population. Dr.Bhaskar Rao
Once I read an (local) newspaper report that a dye factory near Faridabad (near Delhi) producing dyes for textile industry pump down its highly toxic waste into ground water. I do not know what happened next. But I know many factories near my home town in east India directly discharge their toxic waste in local rivers. Previously there were many fishes in rivers but nowadays you hardly can see/catch a single fish there. According to my personal experience almost all rivers in India are treated as drains. Sometimes there are ?effluent treatment? plants but the management of the industries does not run it on a regular basis, as ?it will increase the operating cost and reduce profit?. Govt agencies and NGOs (yes, majority of NGOs in India are just as lucrative businesses to fool local people and its donors, mainly foreign donors) are more than happy to overlook such problem if bribed properly. Drug trials are a very lucrative flourishing business in India and many high profile companies are involved in that. There is hardly any transparency in the whole process. There are many reports in reputed news media like BBC that, ?In India, poor and illiterate patients are being used to test new drugs for the West and some are unaware they are even taking part in clinical trials?. From personal experience I can say that such practice is rampant. It?s alleged that many high profile private nursing homes, hospitals and even govt hospitals are involved in such practices. There is hardly any follow up of the patients who took part in such ?trials?. In the best case scenario, nursing homes/hospitals wash their hands off once the ?volunteers? are released from such trails. In a judicial system like that in India it?s almost impossible to ?prove? anything in a court of law against that powerful lobby. Opposing such practices is highly dangerous, as one can imagine. Such medical malpractices not only restricted to drug trials but spread in almost everywhere among medical fraternity. Many doctors and scientists are involved with such activities. It seems that India and common people there are destined to pay such a heavy price for so-called ?development? for a fraction of the population.
Once I read a (local) newspaper report that a dye factory near Faridabad (near Delhi) producing dyes for textile industry pump down its highly toxic waste into ground water. I do not know what happened next. But I know many factories near my home town in eastern India directly discharge their toxic waste in local rivers. Previously there were many fishes in rivers but nowadays you hardly can see/catch a single fish there. According to my personal experience almost all rivers in India are treated as drains. Sometimes there are "effluent treatment" plants but the management of the industries does not run it on a regular basis, as "it will increase the operating cost and reduce profit". Govt agencies and NGOs (yes, majority of NGOs in India are just as lucrative businesses to fool local people and its donors, mainly foreign donors) are more than happy to overlook such problem if bribed properly. Drug trials are a very lucrative flourishing business in India and many high profile companies are involved in that. There is hardly any transparency in the whole process. There are many reports in reputed news media like BBC that, "In India, poor and illiterate patients are being used to test new drugs for the West and some are unaware they are even taking part in clinical trials". From my personal experience, I can say that such practice is rampant. It's alleged that many high profile private nursing homes, hospitals and even govt hospitals are involved in such practices. There is hardly any follow up of the patients who took part in such "trials". In the best case scenario, nursing homes/hospitals wash their hands off once the "volunteers" are released from such trails. In a judicial system like that in India it?s almost impossible to "prove" anything in a court of law against that powerful lobby. Opposing such practices is highly dangerous, as one can imagine. Such medical malpractices not only restricted to drug trials but spread in almost everywhere among medical fraternity. Many doctors and scientists are involved with such activities. It seems that India and common people there are destined to pay such a heavy price for so-called "development" for a fraction of its population.
the solution for this problem is in our future young chemists hands only..we have to be aware of all these things happening in the country and we should keep away from these types of misconducts....