15 February 21
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15 February 21
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RSN: Marc Ash | Will Biden and the Democrats Allow Medicare to Expand?
Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "The Biden administration has the tools to significantly expand Medicare, but do they have the political will?"
pening a discussion on Medicare, I should begin by saying that I rarely disagree with Bernie Sanders on reforming the archaic American health care system. There are too many good reasons to support Sanders’s health care initiatives.
But over time, I’ve come to wonder if pre-emptively dismantling the existing for-profit health care system would be the most productive approach.
Sure, on paper, if you canceled the for-profit system outright and built your national infrastructure around a public system, the transformation would be far faster and more efficient, and the benefits to the country’s health and economy would be huge.
The problem is that in the real world, this always gives the for-profit health care industry and their operatives in Congress an all too effective anti-socialism, anti-communism rhetorical vehicle. Yes, that argument falls apart with any cogent analysis, but it’s brutally effective on right-wing media.
That leaves alone the enormous legislative task of dismantling the current system and constructing a new one. An incredibly difficult task for a perfect Congress functioning in a purely objective spirit. For our deeply conflicted, highly polarized, and totally dysfunctional Congress, it would likely do more harm than good.
Enter the perfect solution: Medicare. Medicare is an up-and-running, fully functional, decades-old, LBJ-era public health care system. It works beautifully, and the only reason it isn’t the dominant health care system in America is that federal law restricts its growth by limiting access to people over 65. Lift that restriction and Medicare becomes the dominant health care system in America in 5 years. That’s all it would take.
The for-profit health care industry is well aware of what it would mean to have to compete with Medicare on a level playing field. The 65-year-old age restriction on Medicare is preventing open competition, protecting the industry’s enormous profits, and literally keeping them in business, albeit artificially. Newly-elected president Joe Biden, as an act of benevolence, proposes lowering the age restriction to 60 years from 65. That would be a kinder, gentler travesty, but a perpetuation of enormous travesty nonetheless.
Upon further examination, Biden’s plan to lower the qualifying age for Medicare to 60, while it sounds tepid, will draw intense fire from the for-profit health care industry.
NPR in November 2020 published an article labeled “Health News From NPR.” Upon closer examination, the piece was the product of Phil Galewitz, writing for Kaiser Health News. The title, Biden Wants to Lower Medicare Eligibility Age to 60, but Hospitals Push Back, might seem a precursor to an objective report, but predictably, having been produced by Kaiser, it’s an industry perspective.
The gist is that Biden is being too aggressive, “the hospitals” won’t stand for the cuts in revenue, and Congress is too industry-friendly and won’t approve it – the final point being probably true.
But The New York Times points to a potential workaround in a December 2020 piece titled Becerra Supports ‘Medicare for All,’ and Could Help States Get There. As the title suggests, the Department of Health and Human Services could work with states to expand Medicare coverage. The counter-argument is that it would increase taxes. The counter to the higher taxes argument is that yes, it would increase taxes but significantly decrease insurance premiums, so that the average American would pay less, far less overall.
The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the inadequacies of the for-profit health care system’s ability to address the public good, particularly in times of crisis. It was never designed to provide for the public good. It was designed to earn profits for health care corporations. That it does well.
The Biden administration has the tools to significantly expand Medicare, but do they have the political will? There’s been a lot of talk about “pushing” Biden and the Democrats. A little bit of public attention and energy on Medicare expansion at this moment might go a long way. What the pandemic has taught us is that our lives do in fact depend on it.
Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Trump at the White House after the Capitol riot. In his speech beforehand, Trump exhorted his followers to 'fight' the vote and called his mostly white audience 'the people that built this nation'. (photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
'White Supremacy Won Today': Critics Condemn Trump Acquittal as Racist Vote
Amanda Holpuch, Guardian UK
Holpuch writes: "The decision by 43 Republican senators to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial has been condemned by many observers as a racist vote which upholds white supremacy."
Analysts say ‘whiteness protects its own’ after only seven Republicans vote to convict Trump of inciting deadly Capitol riot
The former president was tried this week for his role in inciting the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, where his many of his followers waved Confederate flags and wore racist and antisemitic clothing and symbols while storming the building.
In his speech before the riot, Trump exhorted his followers to “fight” the vote and called his mostly white audience “the people that built this nation”. His efforts to overturn the election results concentrated in cities with large populations of Black voters who drove Biden’s win.
Kimberly Atkins, a senior opinion writer at the Boston Globe, tweeted that the mob was trying to stop the votes of Black people like her from being counted.
Atkins said: “When this is done at the urging of the president of the United States, the constitution provides a remedy – if members of the House and Senate abide by their oaths. A republic, if you can keep it. Is it a republic for me?”
The Washington Post’s global opinions editor, Karen Attiah, said: “White supremacy won today.
“History will reflect that leaders on both sides of the aisle enabled white extremism, insurrection and violence to be a permissible part of our politics,” Attiah added. “America is going to suffer greatly for this.”
For Trump to be found guilty, 67 senators needed to vote for his conviction. The former president was acquitted in a 57 to 43 vote on Saturday afternoon. The Senate is 89% white.
After the vote, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, addressed the chamber and said it was an “incontrovertible fact” that Trump was guilty and implored the audience to “remember the hateful and racist Confederate flag flying through the halls of our union” during the insurrection.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael van der Veen, in his closing statement equated the Capitol insurrection with Black Lives Matter protests last summer, repeatedly referring to those demonstrators as a “mob”.
“Black people can’t object to a knee on our necks or kids getting pepper-sprayed, but whiteness protects its own,” the Rev Jacqui Lewis tweeted after the vote. “This is who America is, and it’s who we’ve always been. And we need to decide if we want to be something different.”
A professor of history, race and public history at Harvard University, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, said Trump’s acquittal made Biden’s election look similar to Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 election win, which was followed by the civil war a few months later.
“Trump is now the head of the neo-Confederacy, formerly called the Republican party. This is a party made up of people whose ideological ancestors have always been well represented in all levels government, and society. Let’s be clear, this is an America that has always been,” Muhammad said.
Brittney Cooper, the author of Eloquent Rage: a Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower, said the impeachment trial reminded her of when white juries would rarely convict their peers for lynchings. “Those jurists are political ancestors of the modern GOP,” Cooper tweeted. “It’s shameful, not to mention enraging.
“Also to the liberal white people frustrated as the House managers presented an air tight case against a white supremacist insurrection to no avail, I say: welcome,” Cooper added. “This is what it feels like to scream into the wind. Black folks know it well. As you can see, it truly sucks.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), (R), greets DNC Chairman Tom Perez, (L) on stage as he gets ready to speak to a crowd of supporters at a Democratic unity rally at the Rail Event Center on April 21, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (photo: George Frey/Getty Images)
Iowa and New Hampshire Shouldn't Vote First Anymore, Says Former DNC Chair Tom Perez: 'The Status Quo Is Clearly Unacceptable'
Charles Davis, Business Insider
Davis writes: "Democrats cannot keep voting like it's 1972, according to former party chairman Tom Perez, who said it's time to let others go first when it comes time to select a presidential nominee."
"The status quo is clearly unacceptable," Perez, who headed the Democratic National Committee during the 2020 nomination process, said in an interview published Sunday by The New York Times.
For nearly 50 years, Iowa has been the first state to weigh in on who should lead the Democrats into the general election, followed soon after by New Hampshire. In 1972, that was a progressive reform: Previously, party elites made the choice with little direct input from their party's voters.
But both states are overwhelmingly white, far more so than the general public and the Democratic electorate in particular.
"A diverse state or states need to be first," Perez said. "The difference between going first and going third is really important. We know the importance of momentum in Democratic primaries."
In 2020, the Iowa caucuses were narrowly won by now-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders taking New Hampshire. Sanders also won the next state, Nevada, the first with a significant population of color.
However, it wasn't until the fourth contest, in South Carolina, that a state with a large Black population voted. That state was won by President Joe Biden.
"This is the Democratic Party of 2020," Perez said. "It's different from the Democratic Party in how we were in 1972. And we need to reflect that change. And so I am confident that the status quo is not going to survive."
Hector Arreola. (photo: USA Today)
He Told Police, 'I Can't Breathe,' 16 Times Before He Died. Now, His Family Seeks Justice.
Katie Wedell, USA Today
Wedell writes: "Hector Arreola was 30 years old in 2017 when he died in police custody in Columbus, Georgia. His family released a 4-minute video Friday in the hope of bringing renewed attention to their fight for justice."
n the reenactment of Hector Arreola's final moments, the actor portraying him yells for his mother as two police officers hold him down.
"They're gonna kill me," he says as his legs are shackled.
Arreola's case was one of 32 fatal police encounters USA TODAY examined last year in which the deceased said "I can't breathe."
In addition to the reenactment, Hector's father's voice describes how during the real incident, Arreola told the officers 16 times that he couldn't breathe while one of them sat on him. Viewers hear Hector's voice on the 911 calls he made that night, and see his bloodied and lifeless body on a stretcher as it was captured on a police body camera.
“This could be your family member.”
His father, Rodrigo Arreola, wants people to keep that in mind when they watch it.
In the video he says one of the family's goals is to end qualified immunity — the legal doctrine that shields police officers from being held personally liable in civil court if they kill someone. A judge ruled in the Arreolas' pending lawsuit that the two officers involved do not have qualified immunity, so the family's case is proceeding to a jury trial in May.
But the Arreolas want all families to have the same opportunity to hold officers directly accountable without having to overcome the legal hurdle of qualified immunity.
"Under qualified immunity, government officials can only be held accountable for violating someone’s rights if a court has previously ruled that it was 'clearly established' those precise actions were unconstitutional," according to the Institute for Justice, one of many groups advocating for the end to the doctrine.
"A family cannot hold anyone accountable," Rodrigo Arreola said. "How many people are going to go through this and be completely ignored?"
The Arreola family held a news conference Friday along with the Columbus, Georgia chapter of the NAACP to premier the video, call for an end to qualified immunity and to put pressure on the new district attorney for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, Mark Jones. Last year, Jones told USA TODAY the officers involved should be charged with aggravated assault and felony murder.
He said he'd convene a grand jury, but has not done so since taking office in January.
"Where's the action?" Rodrigo Arreola said.
Jones did not return a call for comment Friday.
Between 900 and 1,000 people are killed each year by police officers, according to a Washington Post tracker, but an average of seven officers are charged with murder or manslaughter in such cases each year, according to research from Bowling Green State University.
On Jan. 9, 2017, Hector Arreola called 911 twice requesting police assistance and saying someone was threatening his life and his mother.
When officers arrived, they found him acting strangely and called for an ambulance, but before it arrived they grabbed him to arrest him for disorderly conduct and a struggle ensued, according to court records and body camera footage.
One officer held down Arreola by the neck and upper back while the other sat on his lower back and buttocks, according the records. The struggle continued for six minutes and officers stayed on top of him for two additional minutes after he was cuffed.
Sixteen times, court records show, Hector Arreola told police he couldn’t breathe. Officers responded that he could. Arreola passed out and was taken to the hospital. He was removed from life support the next day.
His cause of death was originally ruled an accident and attributed to methamphetamine intoxication, but the state medical examiner amended the death certificate from accidental to homicide last summer after reviewing the police body camera footage.
The video about Hector's death, by Columbus, Georgia filmmaker Bobby Sampson, amassed nearly 90,000 views on Instagram in the first four hours it was posted.
"Our intention is to provide a voice, and assistance in healing, to the victims and families who have suffered the injustice of police violence," Rodrigo Arreola said. "Our goal is to change the laws that provide immunity from wrongdoing to police and the governments that employ them."
The family is in the process of setting up an official non-profit to further that goal. In the meantime they are taking donations via GoFundMe.
Nick Fuentes, the leader of a Christian based extremist white nationalist group speaks to his followers, 'the Groypers.' in Washington D.C. on November 14, 2020. (photo: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
FBI Informant Panic Is Ruining Friendships All Over the Far Right
Will Sommer and Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "From Proud Boys panicked about the revelation that their leader was a snitch to the racist America First crowd, old pals are now enemies.
s federal authorities crack down on the far right after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the movement’s leaders have found new sources of suspicion: each other.
In the Trumpist “America First” movement and the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys, alliances are fracturing as extremists brand each other as potential informants. Now racist live-streamers are accusing their former comrades of attempting to turn over followers to law enforcement, while Proud Boys chapters are splintering from the national organization over similar fears.
Until the FBI started closing in, white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Patrick Casey were the two most prominent figures in the racist “America First” movement.
The pair built up shared audiences on live-streaming platforms, and cheered as their fans, nicknamed “groypers” after an obese version of the cartoon Pepe the Frog, heckled more moderate Trump allies at conservative events.
But the federal heat is on after Fuentes received roughly $250,000 in a much-scrutinized bitcoin transfer, then appeared outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. The FBI is reportedly investigating the bitcoin transfer, though Fuentes has not faced charges over the money or the riot.
On Thursday, Casey distanced himself from Fuentes and America First in a live-streamed video, slamming Fuentes’ decision to gather his followers in Orlando later this month for a conference right as other America First supporters face charges over the riot.
“Some people who were at the Capitol are going to flip,” Casey said in his video.
Declaring the aftermath of the Capitol riot “a million times worse” for the far right than the crackdown that followed the fatal white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Casey claimed, without offering evidence, that Fuentes’ bank accounts have been frozen by federal authorities. He also accused Fuentes of planning to drive cross-country, rather than fly, to the Florida conference because he suspected he was on the federal no-fly list, then concealing that possibility from his followers.
Worst of all, Casey argued, Fuentes planned to gather all of his supporters in Orlando, where they could be easily recorded by federal investigators or informants. He went on to suggest America First’s members would see the conference for what he thinks it could be: an FBI trap.
“He wants you to give him your real name, to show up to his event where your face will be visible, where your cellphone data will be in close proximity to his,” Casey said.
Fuentes didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Accusations that one-time allies have become federal informants aren’t uncommon in the extreme right, which has built up an entire lexicon of terms to describe the varieties of real or suspected federal infiltrators. But that paranoia has been ratcheted up in the aftermath of the riot, with the Proud Boys—a group that has seen a slew of members indicted—splintering under accusations that leaders have become informants or otherwise been compromised by the FBI.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested in Washington, D.C., two days before the riot, and now faces felony charges over the possession of illicit firearm magazines. But a Reuters report on Tarrio’s history as a federal informant cast members’ suspicions on their own leader, even as Proud Boys who allegedly participated in the riot face federal conspiracy charges.
Proud Boys chapters in three U.S. states—including four local chapters in Indiana—now claim to have broken with the national organization over Tarrio’s work as a federal informant. (Tarrio did not return a request for comment.)
“We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him,” read a statement shared by the Indiana group’s state-level Telegram channel and on the Alabama group’s website, previously reported by USA Today. “We do not recognize the assumed authority of any national Proud Boy leadership including the Chairman, the Elders, or any subsequent governing body that is formed to replace them until such a time we may choose to consent to join those bodies of government.”
Proud Boys in Oklahoma also broke from Tarrio’s leadership, issuing a statement on messaging app Telegram in which they accused him and other national “elders” of “failure to take disciplinary measures [which] have jeopardized our brothers safety and the integrity of our brotherhood.”
Tarrio responded to the Oklahoma chapter’s departure with a series of memes accusing Oklahomans of being rednecks, or having sex with relatives. Anti-Tarrio Proud Boys responded with their own memes accusing their former leader of ratting out members of the group, photoshopping his face on rapper and government witness Tekashi69. Another meme played on the menacing Proud Boys motto “Fuck Around and Find Out,” claiming that Tarrio would instead “Snitch Around and Rat Out.”
But don’t expect Proud Boy splinter groups to morph into peaceful book clubs. The Indiana Proud Boys, for example, are led by Brien James, a longtime member of white supremacist groups with a history of violent brawls. Other white supremacists have previously slammed James as a law enforcement risk (someone “you want to keep away from you because you know he’s going to do something to bring the cops over,” one previously noted). Nevertheless, James took to Telegram this week to blame Tarrio and Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean, a prominent Proud Boy who was arrested on Feb. 3 over his own alleged role in the riot, of being untrustworthy.
“Now we have another ‘war boy’ and elder who is trying to snitch on the president? For something he knows damn well the president didn’t do? You made your own choices Rufio,” James wrote, adding that “if you are a Proud Boy I would recommend having your chapter declare full autonomy from the national structure at the very least.” (A public defender listed as representing Nordean did not respond to a request for comment.)
The Capitol riots have been followed by still more rifts internationally.
Anti-fascist activists in Manitoba, Canada, also claim their province’s Proud Boys chapter has dissolved. The CBC reported that, while the chapter had been largely inactive for the past year, the group was confirmed dead this month, when the Canadian government designated Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Jason Lee Van Dyke, who registered the group’s trademark and briefly led the Proud Boys in 2018, filed this week to surrender the trademark to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, legal documents show. Van Dyke previously told The Daily Beast he revoked Tarrio’s license to use the name after a Black church in Washington, D.C., sued the Proud Boys for allegedly burning their flag in a rally weeks before the Capitol attack.
“I don’t want any recourse or anyone thinking I have any control over this group, that I have anything to do with this group, or that I am going to have anything to do with this group in the future,” Van Dyke said in a separate interview this week. He claimed he’d tried to transfer the trademark to another Proud Boy, who got spooked after Canada slapped the group with a terrorist label.
“There was one individual… who contacted me about having the trademark transferred to him,” Van Dyke told The Daily Beast. “After the Canadian government made a determination of the Proud Boys as a terrorist group for whatever reason they did that, that individual told me he was out and he would not be taking over the trademark. My response to that individual and those who had been working with him on acquiring the trademark was that they had seven days to get back to me regarding who was going to take it over, or I was going to surrender it.
“I did not hear back from anybody and the trademark is surrendered.”
As for the America First movement, Casey’s criticism of Fuentes has riled the “groypers,” who have been forced to choose between their two leaders. Fuentes appeared to respond to Casey on Thursday night by tweeting a video of Donald Trump talking about disloyalty.
But Fuentes’ supporters and allies have good reason to believe federal law enforcement is focusing on their group. Anthime Gionet, a Fuentes ally who goes by the alias “Baked Alaska,” was arrested in January after filming himself entering the Capitol. Riot suspect Riley June Williams, who wore an “I’m With Groyper” shirt to the Capitol, allegedly stole a laptop computer from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Casey urged his followers to consider how they would react to Fuentes’ conference if any other far-right leader had been behind it.
“You would be like, ‘Wow, federal honeypot, federal honeypot event,’” Casey said. “You would probably accuse the guy of being a fed.”
Protesters returned to the streets of Yangon on Monday morning despite a heavy military presence. (photo: Reuters)
Myanmar Protests Resume, Internet Restored as Military Circles
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Pro-democracy protests resumed in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, on Monday two weeks after the military seized power in a coup, despite a heavy military presence that has increased concern of a crackdown."
Armoured vehicles on streets of Yangon as people continue protests for restoration of civilian government.
Livestreams shared by Myanmar media showed people gathering in different parts of Yangon, as an Internet blackout that was enforced overnight appeared to lift.
NetBlocks, which tracks Internet disruption, said on Twitter that connectivity was being restored, but that social media remained restricted for many users. The system was shut down for eight hours from 1am (18:30 GMT).
The military seized power on February 1, the day Myanmar’s parliament was due to begin a new session following elections in November, which were won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in a landslide.
Detaining NLD founder and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as senior members of her government, the generals said they were forced into the coup because of alleged election fraud. Election officials have said there is no evidence of fraud.
The United Nations and a number of western countries including the United States have condemned the coup, and on Friday the US imposed the first new sanctions on military chief Min Aung Hlaing and other senior generals.
In a statement late on Sunday, following reports of shots being fired in the northern state of Kachin and the deployment of armoured vehicles to various cities in Myanmar, United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in the country.
“The Secretary-General reiterates his call on Member States collectively and bilaterally to exercise influence regarding the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar, ” he said in a statement released through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
On Monday, more than a dozen police trucks with four water cannon vehicles were deployed near the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, which has been one of the city’s main centres for protest.
About 15 trucks with malnourished adolescents and camouflaged clothes just passed my house after 8 hours of internet blackout. I feel like I’m in some dystopian movie. pic.twitter.com/ItVZr2eX81
— Htet Myet Oo (@Htet__) February 15, 2021
The generals are also facing a civil disobedience movement calling on the military to step down and free the country’s civilian leaders.
Thousands of government workers from doctors to railway workers have already walked out with a nationwide strike expected on Monday.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded in the Nobel Peace Prize during her years-long fight for democracy in Myanmar, has been charged with the illegal possession of walkie-talkies, and was expected in court on Monday.
Her lawyer told reporters that she had been remanded in detention until Wednesday.
“We came here to submit our power of attorney letter and discussed with the district judge,” Khin Maung Zaw told reporters, adding that he was still trying to see her in line with the law. “According to him, the remand is until the 17 and not today.”
Khin Maung Zaw said that the initial appearance would be by video conferencing.
Some 400 people have been arrested since the coup, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which keeps track of the mostly nightly arrests. Of those, 375 people remain in detention.
The UN is urging the generals to allow Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener to visit Myanmar and assess the situation.
Ganges river pollution in Kolkata, India on October 2019. (photo: Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Pharmaceuticals Pollute the Ganges
T.V. Padma, Eos
Padma writes: "Studies increasingly point to the presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products in urban stretches along the Ganges River, which originates pristine in the Himalayas but is heavily polluted with industrial effluents and domestic sewage when it empties into the Bay of Bengal."
Researchers from Doon University, Dehra Dun, India, have reported the presence of 15 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in the Ganges near two Hindu pilgrimage cities. These pollutants include caffeine, anti-inflammatory drugs, common antibiotics, beta blockers, antibacterials, and insect repellents.
Over three seasons, Doon scientists studied the river waters of two cities in the rapidly industrializing Himalayan state of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, where the Ganges enters India's northern plains from the Himalayas, and Rishikesh, 21 kilometers away. Haridwar and Rishikesh, with a combined population of 400,000, attract an estimated 20 million tourists and pilgrims annually.
In particular, the scientists analyzed the water at its point of entry into the two cities and at sites before its entry into a sewage treatment plant and after sewage treatment. The study could provide useful baseline data for forecasting and evaluating the efficiency of future antipollution measures of the river basin restoration program, the authors added.
"Compared to previous studies that analyzed samples along various locations along the Ganges, this is the first comprehensive, intensive study in a particular city along the river," said Surendra Suthar, an associate professor at Doon University and one of the study's authors.
PPCP concentrations near the cities varied, with the highest measured concentration being 1,104.84 nanograms per liter. Researchers found higher PPCP concentrations at the lower, more populated reaches of the river. The concentrations, especially of anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics, were also higher in winter, possibly because of decreased biodegradation associated with lower temperatures and inadequate sunlight, the report said. The study also showed that PPCPs in the region were associated with a higher risk of algal blooms and a moderate risk to the health of river fish.
"The high load of PPCPs during summer and winter could be attributed to the excessive tourist visits for recreational activities and spiritual congregations during these seasons," according to the report, to be published in Chemosphere in April.
Paucity of Studies
There are few studies on PPCPs in Indian rivers. "Such studies are expensive, as they require sophisticated instruments," Suthar explained.
"Sewage, treated or untreated, flowing into the rivers is the main polluter," said Keshava Balakrishna, a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology. Sewage and effluent have long been associated with chemical pollution, as people flush medicines, cosmetics, and hygiene products down the toilet or throw them in the trash. The waste ends up in water treatment plants and landfills and then makes its way into water supplies such as the Ganges.
"Aquaculture, agricultural farms, and pharma industries can be other important sources," Balakrishna added.
In 2020, Balakrishna's team reported the presence of PPCPs in two tropical rivers in southwestern India, the Swarna and Netravati, which empty into the Arabian Sea.
A 2017 review by a team of scientists including Balakrishna in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety found higher levels of pharmaceuticals in Indian water treatment plants compared with developed countries. The review also pointed out the paucity of studies in India on the fate of pharmaceutical products in water bodies and their impact on human health, "despite India being one of the world leaders in pharmaceutical production and consumption."
The 2017 review reported that studies from other countries indicated that PPCPs in rivers could accumulate in aquatic organisms and enter the food web. Antibiotic resistance among microbes is the main threat to human and ecological health, Balakrishna said. "Low doses of antibiotics in a river can be consumed by pathogens in the river, [which then] become superbugs, and multiply."
Suthar, too, cautions about both toxicity in the food web and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in pathogens contaminating river waters. "If we add up all the individual contaminant levels for 1 liter of water, the collective dose will be very toxic, especially if they bioaccumulate in organisms, including some rare species in the Ganges such as the Ganges dolphins," he said. "And microbes in the waters will become resistant to the drugs."
A 2019 global review of PPCPs in rivers reported that "no global legal maximum environmental concentrations exist for pharmaceutically active compounds," despite poor understanding of the combined acute and chronic effects of PPCPs on flora, fauna, and human health.
The global review went on to say that primary and secondary wastewater treatment plants "generally are unable to remove these pollutants, leading to their migration into drinking water supplies," and recommended advanced tertiary water treatment processes, such as oxidation and adsorption. It also suggested advanced methods for accurate and continuous monitoring of pharmaceuticals in the environment and strict regulations for effluent release.
In India, most antipollution efforts are directed at surface water treatment and focus on parameters such as chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, nitrates, and bacteria, said Suthar. "We need a policy that looks at PPCPs too."
Chemical Footprints
The source of the Ganges is the Gangotri Glacier, high in the Himalayas less than 200 kilometers from Haridwar. The recent findings on PPCPs in the Ganges add to research documenting chemical and microplastic pollution throughout the mountain range, including the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, said Kimberley Miner, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a research assistant professor at the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. "Our team found PFAS [polyfluoroalkyl substances], DDT [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane], and toxic metals on the mountain, suggesting that the chemical footprint left by trekkers may be as large as the visible trash and pollution footprint."
The new Ganges research also echoes recent studies tracing PPCPs on European glaciers, where researchers traced chemical pollutants to the use of perfumes in personal care products like soap. Perfumed soaps and ointments are also associated with PPCPs in Haridwar and Rishikesh, where mass bathing events are part of tourism and pilgrimage activities.
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