What pharmaceuticals are floating around in your water?

Think about all of the drugs that people are putting into their body every day and excreting into our water systems. Think about hospitals… wait don’t, that’s gross. Of course, we have filtration systems in place to get rid of the majority of them, but it should come as no surprise that sometimes these drugs can sneak through those systems. Some secrets of drugs in water you need to know let’s talk about it.

To name a few, antibiotics, anti-consultants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones, have been found in drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Unfortunately, modern sewage treatment systems are not equipped to filter these drugs and they can build up over time. A study was conducted in the early 2000s where 80 percent of rivers tested found low levels of hormones and contraceptives. 80%!

According to more recent laboratory research, the small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells, as well as breast cancer cells. Pregnant women should be especially careful about their drinking water and filter it whenever possible. If these small amounts can affect a grown body in these ways, think about a small baby.

However, now many filter companies are getting certified under the NSF 401, which means the reduction of prescription drugs (including estrone), over the counter medications, and certain chemical compounds. What really should be more concerning is how these different drugs in water interact with each other. Ingesting a small amount of one drug is one thing, but what about when two drugs are combined? Some drugs are lethal when mixed together, and to me, that alone is something we should be very afraid of.

This subject is tough though because there is such a large knowledge gap when it comes to assessing these risks. Pharmaceutical consumption is going up between 10 and 15 percent a year, but research is not keeping up with those stats. Some research even states that adding chlorine can make pharmaceuticals more toxic and as mentioned in a previous post, chlorine is basically added to the majority of water throughout the world.

Similar to the chemical atrazine as well, different hormones that are being found in the water are turning male fish into female fish. There is so much data on the subject but not enough research to back it up. It’s frustrating really but it’s better to be safe than sorry while more research is done on the topic.

I don’t know about you, but I rather just continue getting my prescriptions from behind the counter, not from my water.