Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S.

[Fox Mulder]

(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, Michigan, to Louisville, Kentucky.

More here.

Doesn't this creep anyone else out? :scared:

[TZ]

1. Considering all the chemical contaminents that can be found

in the ground water in places...the small amounts of pharmaceuticals are much less scary to me. I worry more about the carcinogens like benzene and also about bacterial contamination from sewage contaminating groundwater. The amounts of drug found are more harmful to the environment then they are to us really. I don't know how we can eliminate this outside of just banning all pharmaceuticals (which is not happening). I do know alot of experimentation is being done on making the metabolism of drugs more efficient so that we excrete less of it

[Vinca]

2. Kind of amusing when they continually throw a hissy fit about

buying prescriptions from Canadian pharmacies. At this rate, all you need to do is draw a glass of tap water.

[SidDithers]

3. Homeopathic medicine for the masses...

:rofl:

Sid

[SoCalDem]

25. and maybe why kids are gaining so much weight & 7 yr olds are growing boobs

:scared:

small kids should not get adult hormones..who know what the "safe" amount is:(

[laruemtt]

4. as a medical transcriptionist,

i've had to scold doctors i work for many times when they tell their patients to "flush" drugs that aren't working for them down the toilet!

[Echo In Light]

5. Yes. It seems like one in a very long list of crisis that "experts" seek to trivialize/disavow

Like "Mad Cow Disease." Doesn't it seem like that's been at the forefront in recent decades? "Nothing to see here, folks. Let's just move it along, and not get bogged down in any crazy notions of CONSPIRACIES." Funny how it's always the corporations that benefit from this.

Something else to consider is genetic alteration of the foods both we and farm livestock ingest on a regular basis. The whole Monsanto Bovine Growth Hormone ordeal is pretty disturbing stuff ... the propaganda and cover ups, but also the effects it has. One of which apparently involves why we have, in part, become less susceptible to the benefit of antibiotics; the cattle are treated with the growth hormone, become ill from it, and are then given antibiotics to counter those effects, so we end up consuming both puss and antibiotics in our dairy products.

[NNN0LHI]

6. After my day died my mother had tons of his prescriptions to dispose of

The pharmacist suggested rather than pour them down the toilet to pour water into the bottles, put the lids back on and throw them into the regular garbage for disposal.

Don

[TZ]

7. That's a really good idea

I think one of the other problems are the illegal stuff that also gets flushed down the toilet. There is no way to regualate that

[raccoon]

9. Great idea. Everyone should do that.

Does Brita filter that stuff out?

[Fox Mulder]

13. According to the article...

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. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

It doesn't sound like Brita filters will filter drugs out.

[Fox Mulder]

11. Great idea.

[SoCalDem]

24. Uh Oh.. Watch Pharma figure out a way to attach a drug bill to our water bill

couldn't have us getting free drugs..

seriously though.. If I had babies or small kids I don't think I would want them to even drink water..but bottled water's in plastic and it comes from city water usually..

This is dangerous..because you cannot boil it out or filter it out.. I guess there's no way to avoid it..

[fed-up]

8. if so many drugs/pesticides/herbicides weren't over/wrongly prescribed problem would not be so bad

same with herbicides

hell yes, it creeps me out!!!

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/4220
UCB: Popular Weed Killer Demasculinizes Frogs, Disrupts Sexual Development

2002-04-16
Berkeley - The nation's top-selling weed killer, atrazine, disrupts the sexual development of frogs at concentrations 30 times lower than levels allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), raising concerns about heavy use of the herbicide on corn, soybeans and other crops in the Midwest and around the world.

A restricted herbicide, atrazine is used primarily on crops, not around the home, and can be purchased and applied only by certified applicators.

In an article in the April 16 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, developmental endocrinologist Tyrone B. Hayes, associate professor of integrative biology, and his colleagues report that atrazine at levels often found in the environment demasculinizes tadpoles and turns them into hermaphrodites - creatures with both male and female sexual characteristics. The herbicide also lowers levels of the male hormone testosterone in sexually mature male frogs by a factor of 10, to levels lower than those in normal female frogs.

As Hayes later discovered, many atrazine-contaminated ponds in the Midwest contain native leopard frogs with the same abnormalities.

..snip

http://aspatula.blogspot.com/2008/03/environmental-idiocy.html

Another disturbing trend is the increasing problem with interrupting fish reproductive cycles as well as a growing number of male fish becoming "feminized" (that is, either lacking or having poorly developed male sex organs). According to "Collapse of a Fish Population after Exposure to a Synthetic Estrogen," in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (21 May 2007), abnormally high levels of estrogen and estrogen mimics (mostly from the decomposition of certain pesticides) in a number of Canadian lakes led to the virtual extinction of one breed of fish within seven years (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/21/8897?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=%28Collapse+AND+of+AND+a+AND+fish+AND+population+AND+after+AND+exposure+AND+to+AND+synthetic+AND+oestrogen%29&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT). Natural hormones, in particular estrogen, and hormonal mimics, particularly from pesticides, are the sources of much of reproductive maladies in a number of animal species.

The two major sources of estrogen in our water supply is the urine of cows treated with estrogen (http://thegreenguide.com/reports/product.mhtml?id=39) and in the urine of women taking birth control pills (http://www.insiderreports.com/storypage.asp?StoryID=20009617).

The ability of pesticides to mimic hormones, including estrogen, is behind male Florida alligators experiencing various sexual abnormalities (http://www.rgp.ufl.edu/publications/explore/v11n3/story1.html ).

We should care about the sex problems of amphibians, fish, and reptiles because there are disturbing links between the maladies experienced by aquatic animals and worldwide problems including testicular cancer and low sperm quality in human males (http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=609 ).

For an excellent overview of the problems caused by the various pollutants on the endocrine and reproductive hormones, see, "Our Stolen Future" (http://www.ourstolenfuture.com/index.htm). In addition, see the article by Ian R. Falconer, “Are Endocrine Disrupting Compounds a Health Risk in Drinking Water?" in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (June 2006) which argues for the negative influence of estrogen mimickers (and, to a lesser extent, estrogen itself) in municipal water supplies (http://www.mdpi.org/ijerph/papers/ijerph2006030020.pdf).
If we put all these observations together, we must realize that pesticides, chemical pollutants, and hormones in the water supply are killing us far more quickly than moderately warmer summers. We might want to point this out to the government. In the meantime, you might want to adjust your own choices by eating more organic foods trying to eliminate pesticides and hormones from your diet. With three daughters, my wife and I have made the switch. In particular, we have switched to organic dairy products in an effort to avoid increased estrogen from the cows' milk. This is something we can control, or at least influence -- think about it.

[KharmaTrain]

10. So Is This What Montel's Talking About?

Maybe his bus dumps stuff in the water.

How come I have a sneaking suspicion this study was paid for by the bottled water industry???

:tinfoilhat:

:rofl:

[Fox Mulder]

12. In the article...

it was said that drugs were also found in bottled water. Apparently some companies will take water out of the tap and put it in a bottle and sell it.

[margotb822]

14. We can't win

Bottled water is bad for the environment and our wallets. Now tap water is medicating us. Sweet.

Looks like beer for me :toast:

But, yes, I don't like to think I'm drinking someone else's used medicine. I might have to go the 5 gal bottled water route...

[Fox Mulder]

15. That's not a bad idea...

but I don't know if that is even 100% drug free.

:shrug:

[havocmom]

16. Lots of 'bottled water' IS tap water.

Corporations bottling water - not much regulation goin on there.... If you KNOW your bottler, you stand a chance of getting safer water. But buying off the rack and thinkin it's safe because it's in a bottle?
:rofl:

[margotb822]

28. Like Disani and Aquafina

But, there are good companies who use spring water. I'm sure everything is contaminated to a certain extent, but it's disturbing to think about.

[havocmom]

29. I get bottled water due to our tap actually being classified as unfit for stock animals

But, I know the source of the bottled water and it really is a very pristine spring. Been there. Saw it with my own eyes. I'm from Missouri ;)

What worries me is the plastic bottles.... x(

[havocmom]

17. Shortly after bush was sworn in (and at) in 01, there was a news story of very short life

about DOD looking for ways to get things like calming drugs into urban masses, ya know, is case they had to quell violence in OTHER countries.

Story disappeared in record time.

If they tried it in Iraq (which I doubt- less fighting = less profit for the corporations) it doesn't seem to work.

It they wanted it for Americans, well, we have been a pretty docile bunch considering all the outrages done to our cherished Constitution and way of life.....

Thinks that make me go Hmmmmmmm

[Echo In Light]

18. That story def went down the Memory Hole

[havocmom]

20. Yep it did. Everyone was caught up in the 'new guys in town' and then it was hushed

Gotta figure somebody in DOD got their head kicked in for letting the story see the light of day for the approximately 6 hours it was mentioned on TV.

[Fox Mulder]

19. I never even heard of that before...

but it doesn't surprise me...

I'm going to do some research on it now...

[havocmom]

21. If you find any links, PM me please. I have not been able to find much

but I know I heard it mentioned, with other quick headlines, for about 6 hours on MSMBC back when I was home all the time.

[Fox Mulder]

22. Will do.

I haven't found anything yet though.

[havocmom]

23. I fear that will be your song by day's end too

They scrubbed it as only the DOD can I think

[madinmaryland]

26. I had heard that Rush Limbaugh has dramatically increased his

water intake!

:rofl:

[napi21]

27. In a story on CNN this AM they said that a lot of this pharmaceutical

water contamination comes from the waste water of the patients who take these drugs and their body does not absorb all of the drug. They are NOT DESTROYED in the water purification process.

If that's true, that's the reason most were found in highly populated cities. Scary stuff for sure!