The 2022 article ‘The environmental release and ecosystem risks of illicit drugs during Glastonbury Festival’ looks at an interesting source of environmental pollution (drugs) from music festivals [1].
Figure 1. The scale of the Glastonbury festival
From Figure 1, the many tents are a testament to the scope of the Glastonbury music festival in Somerset, England with the five-day event jam-packed with entertainment. In fact, Glastonbury is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, with an estimated 210,000 attendees in 2022 [3]. However, drugs are also regularly consumed at festivals that work their way into the ecosystem.
The article first notes that while illicit drugs are often found in surface water globally as wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are unable to filter them out from urine/feces, the social nature of music festivals results in much higher drug use, especially “party drugs” such as MDMA, ketamine, and methamphetamine, which results in higher drug pollution. Tests from nearby rivers showed significantly elevated levels of drugs like cocaine, benzoylecgonine, and MDMA during and after the festival as compared to studies before the festival, with cocaine 6 times higher and MDMA up to 26 times higher than the baseline. This was attributed to the Glastonbury festival as ‘greenfield’ in nature with temporary toilets in shoddy conditions that lead to public urination and defecation into streams/soils among the many festival goers, allowing drugs to be released into the environment without any filters in place.
While we often don’t think about the environmental impacts of party drugs, there are harmful effects they pose. The article notes that cocaine disrupts the endocrine system of European eels, delaying their sexual maturity. Negative effects were found in the nearby white lake river, suggesting concentrations of drugs were high enough to cause damage which is concerning for the eel population of Westhay Moor NNR located downstream of the festival.
Other studies have also explored the effects of drugs on ecosystems. A study in Baltimore, Maryland found that in streams treated with amphetamine, there was up to 45% lower biofilm chlorophyll, 85% lower biofilm gross primary production, and 30% lower respiration compared to control streams [4]. This suggests that drugs at high enough levels can reduce river ecosystem productivity. Another study in Taiwan found that at higher concentrations, ketamine irradiated by sunlight rapidly induces acute biological toxicity in aquatic organisms, with its effect on reproductive toxicity to aquatic organisms noted as being ‘significant’ [5]. Thus, it is undeniable the pollutive nature drugs can have on the ecosystem.
This problem is actually quite widespread in music festivals. The Sziget festival in Hungary is noted to cause significant drug pollution in the neighboring Lake Balaton, with significantly higher concentrations of MDMA, amphetamines, and cocaine noted during the festival period and surface level concentrations remaining elevated for up to 3 months [6]. The authors concluded the paper by noting that the effect of ‘drug cocktails’ on wildlife is unknown which is worrying as the negative effects could be amplified with a combination of drugs and suggest an area where more research could be done.
Beyond the harmful effects of drugs on the human body, they also can have devastating impacts on the environment if released into aquatic environments in significant quantities. As music festivals gather huge amounts of partygoers in a small area, perhaps more could be done to regulate the use of drugs or at least provide adequate sanitation such that people do not resort to using nature as a bathroom and polluting her.
– Lucian T. K.
References
[1] Aberg, D., Chaplin, D., Freeman, C., Paizs, B., & Dunn, C. (2022). The environmental release and Ecosystem Risks of illicit drugs during Glastonbury Festival. Environmental Research, 204, 112061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112061
[2] Codd, T. (2022, June 24). Amazing aerial shots show Glastonbury Festival Bask in Sunshine. SomersetLive. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/gallery/glastonbury-festival-2022-amazing-aerial-7247796
[3] Skiddle. (2023, January 30). The biggest music festivals in the world: Skiddle. Skiddle.com. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.skiddle.com/news/all/The-Biggest-Music-Festivals-in-the-World-/55949/
[4] Lee, S. S., Paspalof, A. M., Snow, D. D., Richmond, E. K., Rosi-Marshall, E. J., & Kelly, J. J. (2016). Occurrence and potential biological effects of amphetamine on stream communities. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(17), 9727–9735. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b03717
[5] Li, S.-W., Wang, Y.-H., & Lin, A. Y.-C. (2017). Ecotoxicological effect of ketamine: Evidence of acute, chronic and photolysis toxicity to daphnia magna. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 143, 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.05.040
[6] Maasz, G., Molnar, E., Mayer, M., Kuzma, M., Takács, P., Zrinyi, Z., Pirger, Z., & Kiss, T. (2021). Illicit drugs as a potential risk to the aquatic environment of a large freshwater lake after a major music festival. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 40(5), 1491–1498. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4998