DETROIT — A new study shows the Great Lakes are in worse shape than anybody realized. Medicines, caffeine and various chemicals have been found far from shore. And they are at disturbingly high levels. The alarming new study was released last month. It was the first to carefully test the Great Lakes for two things. The first was pharmaceuticals, which are medicines. The second was personal care products. Soap, makeup, shampoo and toothpaste are just some examples of personal care products. Together, pharmaceuticals and personal care products are called PPCPs for short. Professor Rebecca Klaper was one of the leaders of the study. She and the other researchers were surprised how easy it was to find PPCPs. They had assumed it would be hard because there is so much water in the Great Lakes. Lakes Michigan and Huron, for example, together have 2 quadrillion gallons of water. That equals 2,000 trillion gallons of water. The two lakes are connected. The fact that it was so easy to find PPCPs says something important: It means there are more of them in the Great Lakes than scientists had thought. Plus, they were found further from shore By Detroit Free Press, adapted by Newsela staff on 10.02.13 Word Count 530 Level 680L . than ever before. Study Sounds Alarm Bells Scientists are worried that PPCPs will harm fish, birds and other wildlife. If the PPCPs are causing damage, we'll need to try to get rid of them. This would be done through water treatment: that is, by filtering the water. Right now, though, scientists aren't sure how to remove the PPCPs. Klaper and her team looked for PPCPs in Lake Michigan. The testing was done during two years. The researchers looked near Milwaukee’s two main wastewater treatment plants. These are supposed to clean up wastewater. This is water from sewer pipes that feed into the lake. Sewage contains a lot of feces and urine. It also contains things poured down the sink. Thus, it carries a lot of the chemicals humans swallow and use. These are in everything from soda to medicine. Researchers also wanted to find out something else: How far from wastewater treatment plants would PPCPs show up? If they found them far from the plants, that would be more proof that there are a lot of them. Serious Health Threat To Great Lakes Thirty-two PPCPs were found in Lake Michigan’s water. And 30 were found in the lake’s mud. The most common PPCPs were found as far out as two miles from the wastewater treatment plants. Some of the PPCPs included: —Metformin, a diabetes medicine. —Caffeine, which is found in coffee, tea, soda and energy drinks. —Sulfamethoxazole, which is used to treat various infections. —Triclosan, which is added to toothpaste and soaps. Fourteen of the PPCPs were found at dangerously high levels. The threat to the health of the Great Lakes is serious, the report states. It is particularly severe near the shore. Fish, birds and other animals are all in danger. The study looked only at Lake Michigan. But PPCPs are probably building up in other Great Lakes too, Klaper said. Scientists must now figure out which PPCPs are the most important to remove. And also, how best to get rid of them.

Scientists are worried because the Great Lakes contained all of the following, EXCEPT:

(A) diabetes medicine (

B) dead fish

(C) sewage

(D) shampoo