Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S.You are what your neighbors eat.
(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
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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.
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Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.
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A sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California.
Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque .... said tests were negative.So, for those of you keeping track at home, that brings the score of the Seattle vs Albuquerque game to 347 vs 2. Despite (or perhaps because of) the mood-altering chemicals in my water supply, I think Seattle is better.
Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry's main trade group.Emphasis mine. That can be a rant for some other day.
Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.I love that. They're not denying the presence of drugs in the water, nor trying to conceal the method by which the drugs got in the system.
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officials in Emporia, Kansas, refused to answer AP's questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.
That much is clear: People took (or flushed) drugs, and we reuse the water. What goes down the drain comes back through the pipes later. So, it's not 9/11 concerns because they're worried someone might figure out how to put drugs in their water supply. The genuine rationale for secrecy is unclear, then.
Mandatory Bonus Duty: Here's a quiz to make sure you've been paying attention.
1. The quote "For reasons of National Security, we can't let you know what you're drinking" is straight out of:
a) "1984" by Orwell
b) "2008" by Texas and Kansas
c) "Paranoia" by Costikyan, Gelber, and Goldberg
d) all of the above
2. We're all:
a) Medicated
b) Sheep
c) Screwed
d) all of the above
Please complete in triplicate and hand-deliver to your local Execution Center. Have a nice day, citizen.
10 comments:
Here's a pharmacy tech's two cents and PSA.
The reason I see most people putting their expired/ unwanted Rx's down the drain is because they are worried about someone or something finding them in the garbage and getting hurt or even dying. This is a very valid concern. However, the flaw in our logic is that we are led to believe water treatment systems are SO good at purification that we assume they will take care of the drugs in the water. Some drugs however are better off being flushed down the toilet (see the link at the bottom of the page).
The best way to dispose of your expired/ unwanted rx's is to take them to your local pharmacy. Some pharmacies won't take them but if you call around you should be able to find one. There's a federal law that prohibits pharmacies from taking back rx's once they've passed to the patient's hands and then re-selling the medication. But, unfortunately, some pharmacists (and techs) take this so far as to even refuse to take expired drugs for the purpose of destroying them.
If you can't find a pharmacy to take them to or (like me) you're too lazy to find one, the following link gives some great information on what to do. http://www.wedgewoodpharmacy.com/expiredMedications.asp
I recently had a conversation about "taking expired drugs back to the pharmacy" with our pharmacists (I at the "Pharmacy Research Coordinating Center" in Albuquerque)... and our resident expert said that it's likely most pharmacists would just flush the excess anyway. : )
Of course, these articles all point out that the levels of the drugs they're finding are way WAY below pharmaceutically active levels. ...The problem is perhaps more one of "are all these wee bits of chemicals having a negative effect on us?"
[shrug] Personally (and this is NOTHING more than a personal opinion, not at all backed by science), I think that the effects of chemicals on us are pretty minimal compared to the effects of stress.
I read two paragraphs of the same article being quoted here and clicked "Next". I'm about as worried about anti-seizure meds in my water as I am about a gamma ray burst supernova pointed at Earth.
(Perhaps I'm helped by the fact that I drink more tea than anything else, so the water's been boiled.) : D
For my money, I think there are more pressing concerns. ...Of course, I do think the news focuses far too much on the negative in general, since there are also some good things happening. ; )
At least in St Louis our drugged up water is the #1 in taste in the country!
I'm more worried about the drugs that have passed through people's systems than flushed directly down the toilet. Those are the ones least likely to break down. Fortunately, the only drugs that people upstream of me take are methamphetamines.
On a related note, Popular Science had an article this month about how entire cities are being drug-tested via their sewage.
The logical extension here, of course, is the idea of police running tests on the sewer dump from your house. ...Not feasible at this point (cost), but still an interesting thought. Kinda taps into yer paranoia, eh?
Big brother is watching... er... well... sniffing your poop, anyway.
:)
One more argument for solar composting toilet.
Yeah, but then what are you gonna do when our sun eventually burns itself out?
Soil myself, I suppose.
At least no one will be able to see the wet spots on your pants.
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