"Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.
Most cities and water providers still do not test. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water.
Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don't absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades."
Seriously!!! "antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones" What has it come to now?? We are drugging ourselves and our kids with our water.. Why have "drugs" taken over our health?? Well, I know the answer to that question, but ask yourself why that is.
I guess it is human nature to take things that can be good in certain circumstances and overuse and abuse their uses for "money". Sorry, but like John Stossel always says "Give me a break!" This really ticks me off! They are getting away with it scott free as well. In the span of less than 10yrs one drug maker dumped 2,285 pounds of lithium carbonate into the wastewater treatment plant... That's just one drug from one drug maker!! Did you know that most water treatment plants do not test for pharmaceutical compounds in your water? Did you know that hundreds to thousands of pounds of these compounds used to make the thousands of different types of drugs are dumped into our water system? Do you want female sex hormones being ingested daily by your son? Really, this is a classic case of Americans abusing their freedom to contaminate the rest of us for their own benefit. Where's my freedom in that?
Look, if there is one thing you take from this, it is that most people don't need a drug every day of their lives for the rest of their lives... I know there are certain circumstances where someone may need to, but drugs in this country are way over used and abused. Our kids are being drugged if they don't behave a certain way in school. Can you imagine what a lifetime of drinking trace amounts of antibiotics would do to your body? Not to mention the kind of "super bug" it prepares us for.
I don't know about you, but I'll sure be thinking twice about where my water came from the next time I take a drink....
2 comments:
Of all these terrible things that go on in the world - it reminds me that the 2nd coming is getting closer - not that I give up on important issues, but the world has to get worse - right? I think the drugs in the water is so wrong and that without peoples knowledge of it...nothing will be done about it. I wonder if the drugs pass through the home filters?
I attend a water lecture presented by a City of Mesa water control guy. He said that precription drugs have always been on our drinking water (very small amounts) but that they are able ti actually test for it now. This is whay people should never put thier old medications into the toilet. We need to mix them with dirt and throw them away. I don't like this either, but what do we do?
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