Today the Associated Press published an informative article on drugs polluting our water.
The question scientists ask is will this harm us? Duh, of course it will.
Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. “Based on what we now know, I would say we find there’s little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health,” said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Often harm is allowed to happen then research is done to learn about what that harm is exactly. What do you all think and know about this?
Here is a brief summary of article:
Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are in our drinking water. Pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. Also included is over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
These drugs are affecting us at the very foundations of biology. This is a problem that effects us in a potential subtle and profound way.
How do the drugs get into the water?
From AP article 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.
It is not known how this will affect us humans or wildlife. But it is likely not a good thing.
Some of the findings:
- Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
- Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
- Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
- A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
- The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
- Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.
This is a worldwide issue. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe — even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.
Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion. People think they take a drug and it disappears. Yet this is not so. It is obviosly a biological issue in a large scale.
You responses/ thoughts would be awesome.
