March 10, 2008 | Water, Food & drink, Health
A disturbing study by the Associated Press has found prescription and over-the-counter medicines in the drinking water supply in major metropolises around the country. With pharmaceuticals from ibuprofen and acetaminophen to more hard-core drugs like anti-epileptic, cholesterol, and heart medications, scientists are worried about the long-term effects of mild exposure, as well as drug interaction. Unfortunately the US government doesn’t require municipal water providers to test for pharmaceuticals in the water, and there are no safe limits set. Could that be because no studies have been done to test long-term exposure effects?
Rural well-water supplies aren’t immune, and neither are bottled water supplies. Many water bottlers simply bottle tap water, and their regulations and testing tend to be lest stringent than those for municipal water supplies.
So, what’s a person to do? Prescription drug use has risen over the last 5 years, and if that trend continues the problem could worsen. But if neither well water nor bottled water is the golden solution, perhaps we should all just stop drinking? Home water filters may not remove all the residue either, leaving us with nary a solution.
For now, knowledge is power. Check out your area water supply and be a local advocate for cleaner water. If you live somewhere like Philadelphia where there were 56 pharmaceuticals found in the water, you may want to look into alternative sources for your drinking water. New York City, with one of the cleanest water supplies in the nation refused to participate in the study. Of the 62 municipalities inquired of, only 28 complied with the testing and released their results. That’s troubling to me.
Hopefully as the press takes this up we’ll see some action from the regulatory bodies and find ways to eliminate drugs from our water supplies. In the meantime, maybe we should all just milk our diets? A glass of milk, or maybe some red wine to quench your palette?
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Yvette says:
What a great resource. Thank you for putting this information out there. It’s not our children’s choice to be infected by these pesticides and as parents, we must take the necessary precautions to be proactive.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:41 am