Update: 41 46 Million Americans Drink Pharmaceutical Waste
If you weren't one of the 41 million Americans drinking water contaminated with sex hormones and pharmaceutical waste, welcome to the club! Testing prompted by the AP's damning investigation has revealed that another five million people, including residents of Reno, Colorado Springs, and Chicago, now sip the potentially dangerous pharmaceutical soup.
The substances detected in the latest tests mirrored those cited in the earlier AP report.
Chicago, for example, found a cholesterol medication and a nicotine derivative. Many cities found the anti-convulsant carbamazepine. Officials in one of those communities, Colorado Springs, say they detected five pharmaceuticals in all, including a tranquilizer and a hormone.
"This is obviously an emerging issue and after the AP stories came out we felt it was the responsible thing for us to do, as a utility, to find out where we stand. We believe that at these levels, based on current science, that the water is completely safe for our customers," said Colorado Springs spokesman Steve Berry. "We don't want to create unnecessary alarm, but at the same time we have a responsibility as a municipal utility to communicate with our customers and let them know."
Of the twenty-seven municipalities to test their water supply, seventeen returned positive results. The water in Boston, Phoenix and Seattle all turned up crystal-clear.
What about the country's largest water provider, New York City?
The City Council called for an urgent-sounding emergency meeting in April to order the Department of Environmental Protection to test the city's water supply. In response, the D.E.P. declared: "the testing of finished tap water is not warranted at this time."
Drugs affect more drinking water [AP]
PREVIOUSLY: AP: 41 Million Americans Drink Water Contaminated With Antibiotics, Anti-Convulsants, Mood Stabilizers, And Sex Hormones
(Photo: mikelens)
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Comments:
Jesus...glad I live in Boston!
But, I wonder if a cholesterol altering drug would be a good thing in the water supply? I wonder if Plavix is in on this??
Well, there are 47 million Americans without health insurance. Can't we find a way to funnel all the pharma-water to them? Healthcare crisis solved.
Since 46 million people are ingesting controlled substances without a lawful prescription, the only sensible Republican thing to do is arrest then incarcerate every single one of 'em.
Makes about as much as any of their other policies.
@nffcnnr: There's a special place in hell reserved for you.
..... and me. I laughed a little too hard. ;)
@ukthom: Love that dirty water. Someone had to say it. Anyway it sounds like a new market for natural springs in Chicago.
Evian...now with carbamazepine!!
Mmmmmm.
Funny... Erin Brokivich just started on A&E.
Only buy NSF certified bottled water. Yes, there is a reason to drink bottled
I'm drinking a glass of tap water right now, actually. A while ago, I was feeling annoyed that I was paying for bottled distilled water...and now I feel like it might be a good idea to go back to buying gallons of water.
Stupid NYC DEP. I want to know what in the water I'm drinking
it at least could have been viagra :(
Not to be cynical but is this just another decline in our public services. Action it seems is being taken either slowly or not at all. Now we all have to filter our own water or buy bottled...The whole Fluoride thing is bad enough.
@Trai_Dep:
I already made that joke minus the nonsensical political potshot.
Why would republicans do that ? Too much money to spend.
More illogical liberal thinking.
So yeah I guess next big trend should be bottled water that is labeled drug free.
Hey my idea, I said it here first.
;-)
Water is nice and clean where I live. I'll purchase a bottle of water now and then but I'll reuse that bottle till it gets that funky smell then I'll get a new one. People that only drink bottle water make me laugh. We grew up drinking out of lead pipes and never drank bottled water as children but as adults you will pay 1.39 for 20oz of filtered water.
I refuse to stop drinking water from the tap. I wonder if these people that drink only bottled water brush their teeth with it as well and use it to take a bath.
This seems a bit alarmist until we actually know how much contaminant is present. It seems that most of the cities have deemed the amount present to be more than safe for drinking purposes. It's not like drinking a glass of water is equivalent to taking an actual dose of the subscribed medication.
I can't bring myself to reuse a water bottle until it gets a smell. If it has to get a smell, it's not worth it and I'd rather just get the permanent stainless steel water bottle.
Anyone know of a list of cities or counties with water that's safe from pharmaceuticals? I just want to know whether my area is on that list, and looking at the water authority website is more useless than blind people an eyeglass store.
I had to drink bottled water while in mexico, along with brushing my teeth with it. I showered with rain water so I dunno where that fits in.
Oh crap.
I live in one of those cities.
So, does the Brita filter or any of those things make any sort of difference?
@Trai_Dep: You're still leaving 1 million uncovered. Quick, start flushing Mirapex down the toilet before the restless legs syndrome epidemic decimates the poor!
@AlphaWolf: Wait, what? What's the problem with Flouride? I know dentists may wish it wasn't there, but don't tell me you're one of those "the CIA uses it to control your mind!" crazies. :\
Mom always said they should just add Prozac to the water supply... then everybody would be happy. Maybe they're taking Mom's advice!
@Shadowfire: No, no, you've got it all wrong. Fluoridation is part of a communist plot to undermine the health of Americans. ; )
All kidding aside, it's fine. Many parts of the world already have high fluoride levels, and there's no need to add it to the water. It's natural.
Flouridation is endorsed by The American Dental Association, World Health Organization, the CDC, and the American Medical Association.
See [en.wikipedia.org] for a list controversial claims and info from both sides of the argument.
Well in Mexico they say don't drink the water so that doesn't count. The US water supply is pretty damn safe though. If Americans would learn to safely dispose of pills, instead of flushing them down the toliet, we wouldn't have the problem. The problem lies with us, we are the ones that pollute the water.
Mexico water is safe too, our bodies just aren't adjusted to the bacteria down there. When Mexicans come here they can have the same issues.
This is probably just more alarmist media pandering like last time. Watch the full details of the report come out and say that they found 1 parts per trillion of these drugs in the water, which would mean you'd pretty much have to drink 10 gallons of water a day, for a month, to have any level of drug in your system to effect you. What I would love to see is the same study done on the bottled water everyone drinks, which is also just tap water from places like New York, and see what concentrations of different drugs are found there!
Pharmaceutical Waste!
Recommended by 9 out of 10 people who drink waste.
I remember when I was young my brother took me to swim in lake micigan even though we live in a town with a lake (a cleaner one) I ended up swallowing a bunch of water and I pretty much felt violently sick the rest of the night and majority of the next day. I don't recall ever throwing up so much in my life. I never had a desire to swim in lake micigan again.
That being said I drink our tap water(which comes from lake micigan) and it tastes fine so even though they may not get everything out its a billion times better than if they didn't filter it.
We have a PUR filter so I wonder if that helps things. I know the water is now drinkable again.
@battra92: PUR and Brita filters only filter out heavy particles like iron filings and the like. They are not rated to filter out chemical and biological contaminants, like bacteria.
@ukthom:
But, I wonder if a cholesterol altering drug would be a good thing in the water supply?
Most cholesterol medication places a moderate to severe strain on the liver. If combined with other forms of liver stress, such as alcoholism, that could well lead to many, many cases of liver failure.
@battra92:
We have a PUR filter so I wonder if that helps things. I know the water is now drinkable again.
PUR and Brita are mostly just for taste. They'll catch some contaminants, but most of the truly nasty stuff goes through them like they're not there.
If you want truly pure water, you should look into a high quality filter, or a distiller. Take a look at this page, as an example:
[www.custompure.com]
@Trai_Dep:
Only a few of the RX drugs that are available are "controlled substances". Most of what was mentioned, with the possible exception of the tranquilizer is not controlled. CS's are things like xanax, morphine, vicodin, codeine and others.
So that's why I feel so calm after a nice cup of water, its the Xanax.
@mpotter: Yeah, giggles aside, I recall hearing on NPR that you would need to drink 10 Olympic swimming pools worth of water to get a single adult dose. Which, unless you have a three bathroom house, seems cruising for trouble, especially if you have any teenaged girls.
And, a bit less in jest, the GOP owns the lock-em-up-for-50-years-if-caught-with-a-joint platform. So it's not injecting politics, it's simple observation. With a little ha-ha added for free.
Is it just me, or does that kitty in the pict look seriously wasted? Has anyone tested for traces of catnip in our water supply?
@mpotter: Exactly. It's be a dilution so small it will have Avogadro spinning in his grave. Maybe the water works can get NCCAM funding for a homeopathy study on this scale.
@Trai_Dep: that reminds me of the radon scam. you had to keep your head in a radon filled hole for 78 years before it had any effect on a human. or the black mold scam, which there is no such thing.
@MuglyTheWorm: Actually, black mold isn't so much a scam, as it is again an overreaction. It can cause respiratory problems, but only when you try to scrape it off and breathe it in (or have an allergy to the spores).
We use bottled water because we have well water. And it is ok for showers, laundry and such, but it just doesn't taste quite right to drink it. But we buy the big gallons and just use a glass. I could get a reverse osmosis system and that will remove the taste, but I'm cheap. Of course it might save us some money with the tap water as my wife takes carbamazepine. Just kidding.
@marsneedsrabbits: The only way you're going to get drug-free water is if you distill it. There are inexpensive distillers available. Look on Amazon.
@IHaveAFreezeRay: If you floss, brush and avoid backwashing into your ba-ba, it might not smell so much.
Anyone that lives downstream of a city and gets their water from a river or stream is getting dosed with a wide variety of crap. Literally.
My pediatrician's office had our local water independently tested a few years back, since many patients were asking if they should give their kids bottled water. They were satisfied with the results, and recommend all their patients are given regular tap water from our city.
Sounds like a growing problem.
NotYou007: People that only drink bottle water make me laugh.
I only drink bottled water (but I'm paying $1 per gallon) I can taste the chlorine in tap water.
/Haven't gotten around to installing a RO filter in the kitchen.
/water from small plastic bottles tastes like plastic sometimes.
/Will drink tap water (and make a funny face) if I'm thirsty.
/Sparklets == undrinkable to me, It's 100 times worse than tap water.
NotYou007: People that only drink bottle water make me laugh.
OTOH
If I'm making kool/aid, tang, tea, lemonade or whatever. I use tap water.
Because whatever I'm mixing into the water kills the slight chlorine taste.
In other news, medical researchers are stymied to explain a sudden drop in cholesterol levels in Chicagoans, while at the same time smoking seems to be on the rise.
"I've never smoked before, " quoted one confused Chicagoan, "but in the last couple of weeks, after I've returned home from running, I have a strange urge to light one up."