Production of active pharmaceutical ingredients - compounds sold
in bulk to be used in making pills and capsules - has been
booming for years in India and China. Now, thanks to even more
intense pressure in the global North to hold down prescription
drug prices, the better part of the world's production of both
bulk and finished drugs is shifting to Asia. That is ominous
news for people and ecosystems in the vicinity of the industrial
facilities where the increased production will occur. And if, as
predicted, some of those unlucky communities become incubators
for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, their problems will become
everyone's problem. Take a water sample just about anywhere in
the world these days, and if you have it tested, it will
probably contain drugs of some sort. It has long been recognised
that pharmaceutical compounds, usually in low concentrations,
find their way into streams, lakes, and groundwater by way of
hospital wastes, household sewage, and livestock facilities. But
only in recent years,