Posted on 03/09/2008 4:13:43 PM PDT by xtinct
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 to Louisville, Ky.
Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.
How do the drugs get into the water?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
Can you say stampeed once the nitwits who purchase bottled water (** most brands bottled from tap water in NJ) realize they sucking down all kinds of drugs daily???
**I know this happy fact because in 2003 I had to argue with my professor about my grade in an advertising class. He thought it was un-American of me to point out that nitwit consummers would actually purchase tap water if it was bottled nicely... chuckle !!! I got an A.
Is this the same as drugs in the drinking water, an earlier thread?
Old cavalry wisdom. Put the latrines downstream and get the water upstream. Keep the horses in-between.
I think that story would rate a "to be sure" monkey from Laura Ingraham.
It doesn’t say if the pharms have broken down to the point where it virtually has no effect. Are they intact or are they finding traces of the individual chemicals that make up a pharm?
Makes me glad I have a well. Not perfect, but better than recycled clorinated water.
Yo, I was one of those nitwits ten years ago that bought bulk Evian.
Right now, I’m on a well - SILT ALERT!!!
Big surprise there with all the transexuals here. LOL!
I’ve got one :o)... and have been boiling my tap water for the last 10 years...
You should read the original article and the comments section. It's all Reagan/Bush's fault of course...even though they are finding the same stuff in the water in Canada and Japan. LOL!
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Had to sell the bottled water to the nitwits.
It worked too :o)
They found both the drugs and their metabolic products. Not necessarily breakdown products. For one synthetic sex hormone, they found that the body adds chemical groups to the drug and excretes the modified drug, and then bacteria in the sewage plant remove the groups and reactivate the drug.
They found that male fish downstream of sewage plants were becoming feminized -- developing early-stage eggs in their testes.
(Those of you who don't like statements beginning "They found" can check the article in Chemical & Engineering News, Feb 25, p 13 for details.)
Why am I not surprised.
Call me when it gets into the Scotch supply.
We have been on a well on our rural land for the past 22 years. Our water here is sulfur water, but we filter it through two underhouse filters, then I filter it again through a Brita filter into a big refrigerator container with a spigot. It’s not perfect, but it’s passable and much better than the chlorinated city stuff. - Heh. The people out here got up in arms and demanded that the city pipe water out to them (no small task as we’re twenty miles from town). - I’m hoping we can simplify our purification and filtering method, are looking at a water softener that supposedly purifies without adding salt or chemicals. - Getting under the house every two or three months is sort of a pain, and my husband changes the filters as I just don’t have enough strength in my arms to do it myself.
Germany discovered this almost ten years ago.
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