[LookOutSugarLake] Drinking Water of 41 Million Americans Contaminated with Pharmaceuticals

[Xplornet handrc]

It is becoming more and more difficult to pretend we don't know the  
problem exists.
The only solution I can think of is to stop letting effluent reach  
water, surface water as well
as aquifers.

How? that is the question that must be answered. But answered it must  
be. It can no longer
be ignored.

Huguette Allen.

Drinking Water of 41 Million Americans Contaminated with Pharmaceuticals
  Friday, August 22, 2008 by: David Gutierrez
  http://www.naturalnews.com/023948.html

  An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) has revealed that the
drinking water of at least 41 million people in the United States is
contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs.

  It has long been known that drugs are not wholly absorbed or broken  
down
by the human body. Significant amounts of any medication taken  
eventually
pass out of the body, primarily through the urine.

  "People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it  
and it
disappears, but of course that's not the case," EPA scientist Christian
Daughton said.

  While sewage is treated before being released back into the  
environment,
and water from reservoirs or rivers is also treated before being  
funneled
back into the drinking water supply, these treatments are not able to  
remove
all traces of medications. And so far, the EPA has not regulated the
presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, meaning that there are no
laws in existence today that protect consumers from this increasingly
dangerous chemical contaminant of the water supply.

  Medications for animals also contaminating the water supply

  Drugs given to animals are also entering the water supply. One study  
found
that 10 percent of the steroids given to cattle pass directly through  
their
bodies, while another study found that steroid concentrations in the  
water
downstream of a Nebraska feedlot were four times as high as the water
upstream. Male fish downstream of the feedlot were found to have  
depressed
levels of testosterone and smaller than normal heads, most likely due  
to the
pharmaceutical contamination in their water.

  "It brings a question to people's minds that if the fish were  
affected ...
might there be a potential problem for humans?" said EPA research  
biologist
Vickie Wilson.

  While the concentration of drugs in drinking water tends to be low,  
some
medications, such as hormones, are able to operate potently even at
concentrations of one part per billion. To make matters worse, there is
evidence that the chlorine commonly used to treat drinking water may  
make
some pharmaceutical chemicals more toxic. Thus, the typical claim that
"pharmaceuticals are only present in very low concentrations, and  
therefore
could not be dangerous" holds no water (pardon the pun). Not only are  
some
chemicals potentiated (made more toxic) by other chemicals in the  
water, but
to date, there have been absolutely no studies looking at the increased
danger posed by combinations of pharmaceuticals now being found.

  In other words, nobody knows the level of risk that may be  
associated with
the chemical cocktail of pharmaceuticals now being found in the water
supply. No one can say with any degree of honesty that the drug
contamination is safe, meaning that the real risks to human remain  
entirely
unknown.

  56 different drug chemicals in the drinking water

  To determine the extent of drinking water contamination, an Associated
Press investigative team surveyed the water providers of the 50 largest
cities in the United States and 52 smaller communities, analyzed federal
databases and scientific reports, and interviewed government and  
corporate
officials.

  The investigation found widespread evidence of drinking water  
contaminated
with both over-the-counter and prescription drugs, including  
painkillers,
hormones, antibiotics, anti-convulsants, anti-depressants, and drugs for
cancer or heart disease. Of the 28 major cities that tested their water
supplies for pharmaceuticals, only two said those tests showed no
pharmaceutical contamination. In Philadelphia, 56 different drugs and  
drug
byproducts were found in treated drinking water, and 63 were found in  
the
city's watershed.

  Of the 35 watersheds that had been tested, 28 were found to be
contaminated. Deep-water aquifers near landfills, feedlots and other
contaminant sources in 24 states were also found to contain  
pharmaceuticals.
This means that even in rural areas where people get their water from  
wells,
drinking water might still contain drugs.

  According to researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe of the Stroud Water  
Research
Center, watersheds in rural areas can be contaminated when people's  
septic
tanks malfunction. "Septic systems are essentially small treatment  
plants
that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail," he said.

  Cities do not test the water for pharmaceutical pollution

  Even these numbers do not give the full scale of the problem, the AP
suggests, because many water providers simply do not test for this  
kind of
contamination, which is not regulated by the Environmental Protection  
Agency
(EPA). Of the 52 small water providers surveyed by AP, only one  
screened its
water for pharmaceuticals.

  Other providers do screen, but they conceal the results from the  
public.
According to a group that represents California water providers, the  
public
"doesn't know how to interpret the information" from such tests and
therefore does not need to hear it! Even companies that test and report
their data often screen for only a few chemicals, creating a skewed
impression of how contaminated the water actually is.

  Water bottling companies also do not screen for pharmaceutical
contamination in their water products. It is highly likely, at the same
time, that soft drink bottling companies using local tap water  
supplies to
make their beverages are potentially using pharmaceutical-contaminated
water.

  The EPA sticks its head in the ground over pharmaceutical pollution

  According to Shane Snyder, research and development project manager  
at the
Southern Nevada Water Authority, researchers looking into the extent of
water contamination are avoiding the important questions.

  "I think it's a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to
figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent  
on
human health," Snyder said. "They need to just accept that these  
things are
everywhere; every chemical and pharmaceutical could be there. It's  
time for
the EPA to step up to the plate and make a statement about the need to  
study
effects, both human and environmental."

  A total of over 100 pharmaceutical products have been detected in  
water
supplies in North America, Europe and Asia, including remote regions  
such as
Swiss lakes and the North Sea. And bottled or filtered water, the AP  
report
notes, is not necessarily safer, as the filters used in homes or  
bottling
plants are rarely designed to remove pharmaceutical residue.

  Drug companies, for their part, have done nothing to accept  
responsibility
for the environmental health impact of their polluting chemicals. In  
fact,
Big Pharma hasn't even yet acknowledged the fact that their products are
"pollutants" in any way. Like most pharmaceutical consumers, the drug
companies hope to just flush this issue down the toilet and pretend it  
never
existed.

  The health impact of pharmaceutical contaminants in water

  Very little research has been conducted on the specific effects of  
trace
drugs in drinking water, but what evidence is there gives cause for  
alarm.
Contamination of environmental water sources has caused male fish to  
exhibit
female traits and led to damaging effects on other wildlife species.
Laboratory research indicates that small levels of drugs can cause  
cancer
cells to proliferate faster, slow kidney cell growth and cause  
inflammation
in blood cells. At a time when the American population is suffering from
skyrocketing infertility and hormone imbalances, it seems outrageous  
that
health authorities would not be looking more closely at this issue and
working on ways to protect the public from pharmaceutical pollution.

  Because water is consumed regularly in large quantities over a  
lifetime,
and because humans are exposed to many combinations of dozens of  
different
drugs, the effects on the human body may be significantly greater than  
those
seen in the lab. And unlike most pollutants, drugs are specifically  
designed
to cause changes in the human body, thus they are far less likely to be
"inert" than other chemicals that might be found in the water supply.

  "These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects  
at
very low concentrations," said zoologist John Sumpter of London's Brunel
University. "That's what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the
environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects."


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