Prescription Drugs... In Our Drinking Water?

This blog was created to inform the general public, nursing community, and other water consumers of alarming facts concerning the purity and safety of our drinking water, and to encourage safer disposal of unused drugs. Hundreds of active pharmaceutical drug residues contaminate our water by many different means, placing human health, wildlife, and our environment at risk. Think bottled water is a safe bet? Think again.
Twenty years ago, the EPA found that sludge from a US sewage treatment plant contained aspirin, caffeine, nicotine, and clofibric acid, but the findings were not deemed significant! European scientists have been at the forefront of research after traces of powerful drugs were found to be contaminating sewage, treated water, and rivers throughout Germany. The astonishing number of pharmaceutical pollutants found include antilipidemics, antibiotics, antiepileptics, hormones, analgesics, chemotherapy drugs, psychiatric drugs, and many others!
Our federal government has set no standards or safety limits for drugs in water, and results of independent investigations have remained largely unpublicized. Many scientists say that the synergistic dangers may be much greater than we realize and the evidence is compelling.
What can be done to clean up our water supply and reverse this dangerous problem?

· Seehusen, Dean A., Edwards, J. Patient Practices and Beliefs Concerning Disposal of Medications. (2006). <http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/19/6/542>

· Water Resources Research Center, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona.Pharmaceuticals In Our Water Supplies, July 2000 http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/july00/feature1.htm


Have you ever heard of pharmaceuticals being found in our water?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

CNN - Drugs on Tap Water


In the US, we are fortunate to have some of the best drinking water in the world.  However, a five month probe by the Associated Press found trace amounts of a number of drugs in the water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas encompassing approximately 41 million Americans.  How does your water rate where you live?






See the results of the AP investigation at the bottom of the page.
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2 comments:

Carlos said...

Tap water is now my favorite way to hydrate.

October 26, 2009
Courtney said...

That is really quite alarming. It is frustrating that there is not a suitable alternative to avoid ingesting this.

October 28, 2009

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Does the presence of multiple pharmaceuticals in the water supply and their effect on health concern you?