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Eels in the Thames have been found to have been "hyperactive" because of the high levels of cocaine in the capital's river.
A recent study by Kings College London has found that there are so many Londoners regularly taking the drug that the city's water treatment plants are failing to filter out it out from the users' urine - and the contaminated waste water is leaking back into the waterways.
In turn, this means that fish and other animals living in the city's rivers and canals are ingesting small amounts of the class-A drug - and eels, in particular, are buzzing.
The study - which was conducted from a monitoring station near the Houses of Parliament - has been read alongside a report published by the University of Naples Federico II, where European eels were put in water containing a small dose of cocaine.
They found the fish “appeared hyperactive” compared to eels kept in cocaine-free waters. The Naples researchers found the drug accumulated in the brain, muscles, gills, skin and other tissues of the cocaine-exposed eels.
Their skeletal muscle showed evidence of serious injury, including breakdown and swelling, which had not healed 10 days after they were removed from the drug-contaminated water.
Concentration of Thames cocaine 'so high'
King's College London researchers said the blame lay with the amount of coke-users in the capital and pointed out: "London is known as one of the highest consumers of cocaine and this suggested everyday usage".
They added that the concentration of cocaine found in the Thames was so high it "lay outside of the quantifiable range".
And it wasn't just cocaine that the eels were high on as they also found traces of caffeine too in the wide-awake river creatures.
"Increases in caffeine, cocaine and benzoylecgonine [the main metabolite of cocaine] were observed 24 hours after sewer overflow events," said the King's College researchers.
"Concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine remained high in wastewater across the week with only a minor increase over the weekend, which is not consistent with other cities," they added, which meant Londoners appear to be on it 24/7.
A recent study by Kings College London has found that there are so many Londoners regularly taking the drug that the city's water treatment plants are failing to filter out it out from the users' urine - and the contaminated waste water is leaking back into the waterways.
In turn, this means that fish and other animals living in the city's rivers and canals are ingesting small amounts of the class-A drug - and eels, in particular, are buzzing.
The study - which was conducted from a monitoring station near the Houses of Parliament - has been read alongside a report published by the University of Naples Federico II, where European eels were put in water containing a small dose of cocaine.
They found the fish “appeared hyperactive” compared to eels kept in cocaine-free waters. The Naples researchers found the drug accumulated in the brain, muscles, gills, skin and other tissues of the cocaine-exposed eels.
Their skeletal muscle showed evidence of serious injury, including breakdown and swelling, which had not healed 10 days after they were removed from the drug-contaminated water.
Concentration of Thames cocaine 'so high'
King's College London researchers said the blame lay with the amount of coke-users in the capital and pointed out: "London is known as one of the highest consumers of cocaine and this suggested everyday usage".
They added that the concentration of cocaine found in the Thames was so high it "lay outside of the quantifiable range".
And it wasn't just cocaine that the eels were high on as they also found traces of caffeine too in the wide-awake river creatures.
"Increases in caffeine, cocaine and benzoylecgonine [the main metabolite of cocaine] were observed 24 hours after sewer overflow events," said the King's College researchers.
"Concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine remained high in wastewater across the week with only a minor increase over the weekend, which is not consistent with other cities," they added, which meant Londoners appear to be on it 24/7.
