Prozac in Streams Endangering Mussels

Health Daily News via Yahoo! ^ | 9/12/2006 | Anonymous

[Anti-Bubba182]

They outta drop some Prozac into the Great Lakes and kill the Zebra mussels.

[crymeariver]

Actually there are many drugs in our waterways. Most drugs are excreted through urine of humans and animals. The wastewater treatment process does not remove these contaminants before it is discharged into the waterways. Drinking water treatment plants located on these streams do not remove these micro-contaminants from the drinking water. Nobody thought to look for them until recently. Scientists don't know if it poses a problem or not in drinking water but it's definitely a problem for urban streams.

[rock58seg]

I guess that means they aren't steamed anymore.


Did you ever see a steamed clam? They say, "I'm pi$$ed."

[theBuckwheat]

>>
...what other solution is there besides changing the way sewage is treated?
<<

The only solution, which is impossible, is to develop drugs that are metabolized into harmless waste products. Otherwise, to declare that human urine is a hazmat that must be collected and handled by certified carriers who will regularly collect it from every home and haul it to a central site where it can be properly neutralized before being disposed of in a lined landfill.

We also have a similar problem with hospital sewage for patients receiving radioactive drug treatments. The isotopes end up in the urine just as easily and therefore down the drain to the municipal sewage plant.

[theBuckwheat]

I got to the replies to my comments by a link from New Posts to you. This takes me directly to the post. #14 was not directed to me, so I didn't see it and didn't answer it.

Any chemical that is soluble in water will end up in the watershed downstream of the sewage treatment plant if it is in liquids that are put in that plant's intake sewers.

The metabolites of prozac (the chemicals the body produces -metabolizes- from prozac) will be in the urine of anyone who ingests prozac. That is how these chemicals end up in the water downstream of the sewage treatment plant.

I have not checked, but I would assume that these metabolites do not evaporate anywhere as fast as water does, if at all. So, they would tend to accumulate in any downstream body of impounded water.

Does that answer your question?