A new University of Cape Town UCT study has revealed that Hout Bay's marine environment is seriously threatened by pharmaceutical and personal care product compounds PPCPs that persist and bio-accumulate in marine life, even kilometres away from pollution sources, Cape town Etc reports.
The findings, published in Environments , raise questions about sewage management, environmental monitoring and public health in one of Cape Towns most iconic coastal areas.
The research team, led by UCT's postdoctoral research fellow Dr Cecilia Ojemaye, detected a range of PPCPs in mussel tissue samples collected at significant distances from the marine outfall and the Hout Bay River mouth.