Prescription Drugs In Drinking Water?
March 11, 2008 8:42 am Environment, Health, In the NewsChemicals Found in Tap Water Testing
A testing of local tap water determined that 24 metropolitan areas had traces of at least one pharmaceutical drug.
Drugs found in the tap water included antibiotics, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. Around 41 million Americans and their tap water are affected.
Why the Public Does Not Know About Drugs in Drinking Water
Usually, water companies and researchers do not tell the public about their discoveries. National security, panic, confidentiality agreements and public misunderstanding are just some of the reasons these groups choose to be discreet. Scientists and professors who have conducted tests and found pharmaceuticals in drinking water must guarantee confidentiality before researching, and cannot say where the source came from if they detect something.
Federal law mandates that water providers distribute annual “consumer confidence” reports disclosing contaminant levels. They do not have to tell people if they find something that is not on an EPA list, however, and none of the pharmaceuticals found are on that list.
According to Elaine Archibald, executive director of California Urban Water Agencies, “[people] don’t know how to interpret the information. They hear something has been detected in drinking water, and that’s cause for alarm.”
Harvard professor Peter Rogers stated, “We’re chasing this down to molecular-sized measurements… If I were a water utility, I would stop those measurements right away because if you measure something, it will get out, and people will overreact.”
What Tap Water Pharmaceuticals Mean for Our Health
Many scientists are concerned about the long-term effect of prescription and over-the-counter medicines in our drinking water. U.S. prescriptions rose up to 3.7 billion in the past five years and some of these medications resist the water treatment process. A combination of drugs could harm humans over decades, since Americans consume water every day.
Humans are not the only source of contamination. Steroids and hormones used in cattle production as well as veterinary drugs could be playing a role.
In any case, while traces of these medications might be okay right now, there is a chance they could pose a serious health risk in the future. After all, prescription drugs are meant for one person’s body, not everybody’s.
Read more about how medication in your tap water can affect you here.
Photo Copyright/Credit Ric Francis, AP
Copyright 2008 Matty Byloos
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March 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
There are a few filters on the market that are certified for the removal of synthetic organic chemicals (SOCs) and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). Most prescription and over the counter drugs fall under those categories. Check them out www.waterfiltercomparisons.com
I hope you find this information useful. Until there’s some standard set for the removal of prescription and OTC drugs I guess it’s up to us to do it on an individual basis.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
This site has information about how you can remove the prescription drugs from the water.
http://www.aquasana.com/contamination_drugs.php
March 11th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
This is a serious problem and is another consequence of our prescription drug epidemic. Somehow we have become convinced that we no longer have to confront our problems but simply take a pill to not handle the problem but hide the symptoms.
As the director of Novus Medical Detox, I daily see the ravages caused by prescription drug addiction created by doctors prescribing it to their patients and then the patients either continuing to obtain it or purchasing these drugs on the internet or the street. Probably the worst of these drugs is OxyContin–legal heroin.
Pain is real. I have had to deal with it much of my life first from polio and then from two surgeries. However, there are alternatives to painkillers and they must be tried first. Let’s not treat the symptoms but the cause.
Prescription drug addiction is an epidemic and we must do everything we can to stop it before it overwhelms us. Education is a must. Detox and rehab are the only solutions for people who are addicted and have decided that they must change their lives.
Steve Hayes
http://novusdetox.com