A new study has found that pollutants in the Tijuana River—which carries untreated sewage from Tijuana into the Pacific Ocean, where it ends up on San Diego beaches—are also being released in the air as fine particles that can travel for miles.
Samples from air and water along the coast from Tijuana, Mexico, to La Jolla, California, revealed that ocean aerosols contained illicit drugs (including enough to make a fish addicted and experience withdrawal), drug byproducts produced from urine, and chemicals from tires and personal care products, researchers from the University of California–San Diego concluded in a study published on May 28 in the journal Science Advances.
