Medicated Drinking Water? – Prescription Drugs Found In American Water Supplies

Think twice before you take the next sip of your presumably pure life source, for, it might not be as pure and you might be gulping down other people’s medications as you quench your thirst.

As alarming facts come to light regarding a variety of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals finding their way into the drinking water supplies of 41 million Americans, the thought, that quantities detected are very minuscule at present, offers no consolation at all.

From prescription drugs like antibiotics, to sex hormonesdefine, anti depressants, anti-epileptic, anti-anxiety medications and anti convulsants, to over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen, ibuprofen etc, all have been detected in small quantities at various water sources across the nation.

In an Associated Press investigation carried over a span of 5 months covering over 24 major metropolitan cities, it was found that many utilities rarely disclose their water screening results insisting the water to be safe. However when tests were conducted, around 56 different drugs were found in all, at various utilities.

Not only that, 63 pharmaceuticals and their by products were detected in the watersheds of the country. To top it up, Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey found chemicals in a water treatment plant supplying to 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey.

These findings are becoming a cause of worry for scientists and geologists as long term consequences, due to decades of exposure to such chemical intakes on not just human health, but wild life too, can be manifold. The investigation also shows that many of the natural watersheds, rivers and lakes are also contaminated by these medicines. People depending on ground water supplies too are not safe.

"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Against common beliefs that medicines are absorbed by the body, many of the drugs, partially absorbed, find their way out of the human body through excreta and into the toilets to be flushed out, to join the waste water reserves. This water no matter how well treated is unable to free itself off the chemicals completely and these find their way back into the human system, the effects of which can be way too dangerous, ranging from effects on human embryonic kidney cells, breast cancerdefine cells and blood cells. Even wildlife and water animals are finding the cell mutations due to exposure to these chemicals hard to avoid.

Surprisingly the federal government pays not much importance to testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water. Americans are increasing their dependency on drugs by the day, with the number of drug prescriptions rising by 12% over the past five years.

It might be easy for the government to shrug off the responsibility of water testing in the present day situation, but imagine the effects of the drugs on us and our environment on being subjected to these slow intakes for decades to come.