Photo: Anna Barclay for Glastonbury Festival via Getty. Inset: Getty
Rare eels were put in harm’s way due to drug use at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, according to a recent study.
“Reported high drug use at music festivals coupled with factors such as public urination can lead to the direct release of illicit drugs into the environment,” the study said in the abstract summary.
Whitelake River.Trish Steel/Wikimedia
To determine if drug use and public urination at the Glastonbury Festival affected the rare European eels living in local waterways, the researchers tested Whitelake River and neighboring Redlake River, which is further away, for illicit substances before, during, and after the event.
The study determined, “MDMA reached its highest level during the weekend after the festival. This concentration is deemed harmful to aquatic life.”
“Cocaine and benzoylecgonine concentrations were not at levels deemed harmful to aquatic life,” researchers said, although they noted the concentrations were “three times higher than MDMA concentrations.”
As for Redlake River, researchers said it had “no significant changes (p > .05) in any illicit drug levels, further confirming that drug release was likely dependent on the festival site.”
Christian Dunn, a professor in wetland science at Bangor University, who led the study, toldCNNon Tuesday that the concentration of illegal drugs was “high enough to be classed as environmentally damaging.”
She also noted that the concentration declined “pretty quickly after Glastonbury has finished.”
“This has highlighted the fact that stopping public urination is so important,” Dunn told the outlet. “Not just for the traditional pollutants, which we’ve kind of known about, but for these types of pollutants, which we’re only now really just becoming aware of -— pharmaceutical waste, illicit drug waste -— these are important.”
European eel.Getty
The researcher suggested Glastonbury Festival officials invest in treatment wetlands and reed bed systems to “break down and filter out” the pollutants affecting the European eels.
In a statement toCNN, the festival organizers said the U.K.’s Environment Agency did a “thorough and successful waterways sampling regime” in 2019 and did not bring up any concerns.
“Peeing on the land is something we will continue to strongly discourage at future Festivals. We also do not condone the use of illegal drugs at Glastonbury,” the festival added in the statement. “We are keen to see full details of this new research and would be very happy to work with the researchers to understand their results and recommendations.”
Glastonbury Festival did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request to comment.
The popular festival does have apage dedicated to the causeof protecting the environment surrounding the event as part of their “Green Pledge.”
“Peeing on the ground causes toxic pollution of the water table. The groundwater runs into the central Whitelake River and down the valley for miles around,” the festival shared on the pledge page. “Wildlife and fish are affected if 200,000 people pee everywhere.”
It also warned, “The Environment Agency tests the water regularly, and has the power to close down the site if too many people have urinated and polluted the site. It really could be the end of Glastonbury if you pee where you shouldn’t. Please only pee in our thousands of toilets and urinals.”
Glastonbury Festival.OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty
According toBusiness Insider, high levels of the Class A drug were detected in U.K. city’s Thames river.
The cocaine appeared to have entered the river via water from London’s sewage systems that sometimes overflow into the Thames during periods of heavy rain. Cocaine initially entered the sewage systems through the urine of cocaine users.
A group of biologists at the University of Naples Federico II experimented with eels and cocaine-laced water in June 2018 and wrote up their results for the journalScienceoftheTotalEnvironment.
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For the study, the biologists left live European eels in water with a small dose of cocaine, reportedly comparable to what is found in the Thames, perTheIndependent. The eels in the cocaine water appeared more hyperactive to the biologists than the eels in cocaine-free water. The drug also caused serious injury to the eels' skeletal muscle, which was slow to heal after the eels were removed from the water with the cocaine.
“This study shows that even low environmental concentrations of cocaine cause severe damage to the morphology and physiology of the skeletal muscle of the silver eel, confirming the harmful impact of cocaine in the environment that potentially affects the survival of this species,” the 2018 report read.
source: people.com
