Drugs in Drinking Water
March 10th, 2008Via: AP:
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.
Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public “doesn’t know how to interpret the information” and might be unduly alarmed.
How do the drugs get into the water?
People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.
And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.
Drugs in the drinking water sounds like accidental genocide compared to the UN dropping 2 million injections into Paraguay. Probably clearing away the shrubs to make way for planting ‘Bushes’ there…
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0802/S00432.htm
UN Provides Vaccines To Help In Paraguayan Fight Against Yellow Fever Outbreak
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has organized the supply of two million doses of yellow fever vaccine to Paraguay as health authorities in the South American country battle a deadly outbreak of the viral disease.
My sister is a hydrogeologist with the US Geological Survey, and they have studied contaminants in drinking water for over a decade now. The USGS and the EPA publish their findings but both agencies publish useful information that tends to be politicized, and is therefore buried deep. I am glad to see the AP write on this issue.
Studies my sister’s has worked on showed Prozac, caffiene, and additives to cosmetics to be the prevalent chemicals. That some medications are prevalent in the drinking water is also from people flushing their prescription drugs down the toilet when they don’t want them anymore. These drugs don’t dissolve readily. Hence, these undissolved pills are also at the bottom of septic tanks when they are cleaned out as well.
Not only do people flush the pills, the human body does not readily ingest solid pills. If you’re on medication, you should crush the pill and dissolve it in water or juice if want it in your system. Same for vitamins that are not in liquid form.
Get a good water filter, even a Britta is better than nothing if on municipal water. I set up the Berkey filter this weekend (anticipating power loss from a huge snowstorm – but we have a well). The Berkey is quite a filter. Yoi.
This ties in nicely with a story linked to from LATOC yesterday that specualtes about how happiness pills may have fueled all the irrational exuberance of recent years.
http://www.oftwominds.com/journal/journal-7-14-07.html
Male sperm counts have dropped rather precipitously over the past few decades. There have been several articles about this–one of which was linked from LATOC recently, but is no longer there.
Here’s one:
http://www.vegsource.com/articles/robbins_sperm.htm
Here’s a quote: “A 1992 study in the British Medical Journal found that men in western countries today have less than half the sperm production their grandfathers had at the same age. (1) The report examined 61 separate studies of sperm count in men in many countries, including the U.S., and concluded that there has been a 42% decrease in average sperm count, from 113 million per milliliter (ml) to 66 million per ml, since 1940. (There are 4.5 milliliters in a teaspoon). Furthermore, the average volume of semen diminished from 3.4 ml to 2.75 ml, a 20% loss since 1940. Thus the average man has lost 53% of sperm production in the last 50 years.”
This is from a 1992 study! Eskimos in Alaska are finding that they are having far more girl children than boys.
This is creepier than this article lets on.
I have often wondered if oddball sexual behaviors, which have become a bit more noticable–and may or may not be more prevalent–are related to this.