Drugs in our Freshwaters, Free Public Program at the Cary Institute
On Friday, April 20 at 7 pm join the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies for a special Earth Day Event. Cary Institute aquatic ecologist Dr. Emma Rosi, an expert on how drugs like amphetamines and antibiotics alter aquatic life, will discuss pharmaceutical pollution in freshwaters.
First, preview a 15-minute PBS documentary featuring Emma’s work on antibiotic resistance in streams. Then learn more in a lecture that will cover how pharmaceutical pollution is passed up the food web, why micro-plastics complicate things, the state of the issue in the Hudson River, and how citizens can make a difference.
Rosi directs the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research site. As part of BES, Rosi is exploring the role that failing wastewater infrastructure plays in polluting streams and creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
An artificial stream facility on Cary’s campus – one of the few such facilities in the world – has enabled Rosi’s groundbreaking research on how pharmaceuticals and personal care products influence stream food webs. Among her findings: antihistamines inhibit invertebrates, antibacterial soaps alter microbial communities and increase bacterial resistance, and antidepressants limit algal production.
Rosi is a leader in the field of novel and emerging freshwater contaminants and serves on the Ecological Processes and Effects Committee of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board. She also sits on the editorial board of Ecosystems, and is a reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the USDA.
The event, free and open to the public, will be held in the Cary Institute’s auditorium, located at 2801 Sharon Turnpike (Route 44) in Millbrook, N.Y. Seating is first come first served. Visit www.caryinstitute.org or call (845) 677-5343.
