DRUGS IN THE DRINKING WATER
Could our drinking water be contaminated with prescription drugs?
As residents of the United States, where running water is an ordinary part of everyday life, we expect that when we turn on the faucet to fill a glass with water it is clean and filtered. Is this always correct? Is our water just as bad as third world countries that have no running water? According to the CDC (2006) “The Nation's medicine cabinets are more crowded than ever, with almost half of all people taking at least one prescription medicine and one in six taking three or more medications”. Where do all of these medications go, are they getting into our water supply, including bottled water, are these companies really purifying the water as we trust them to do?
At least one pharmaceutical was detected in tests of treated drinking water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, according to an Associated Press survey of 62 major water providers. Only 28 areas actually tested the drinking water, and three of those said results were negative. Thirty-four locations said no testing was even conducted. Surprisingly, as of right now there is no standardized or required tests to be run on our drinking water as test protocols vary widely. “Some researchers looked only for one pharmaceutical or two while others looked for many” (Paddock 2008).
Drugs were discovered in the drinking water supplies of major metropolitan areas from coast to coast. Water filtering systems from most treatment plants do not remove all drug residues. Testing in Philadelphia revealed 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water. “Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were found in treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California”, states Tilton (2008).
Drug products that are excreted from or washed off the bodies naturally end up in the sewage that flows into sewer systems and septic tanks. Scientists are beginning to monitor the extent of pharmaceutical products in the aquatic environment and their consequences. What they are finding is that, through leaching from septic tanks and escaping intact through sewage treatment processes, some of these substances are ending up back in the drinking water. Studies conducted there, during the past 10 years, confirmed the presence of drugs in treated and untreated sewage waste, surface water, groundwater, and drinking water. Most commonly found were anti-inflammatory and pain-killing drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, anticonvulsants, and sex hormones from oral contraceptives. In addition to the drugs in drinking water noted above, the list includes antineoplastics, beta-blockers, bronchodilators, lipid regulators, hypnotics, antibiotics, antiseptics, X-ray contrast agents, sunscreen agents, and caffeine according to Potera (2005). These concentrations are measured in parts per billion, but their presence is disturbing to scientists about their long-term consequences.
"These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations. That's what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects," says John Sumpter (2007) at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs in the drinking water.
Humans could be harmed by ingesting drinking water contaminated with tiny amounts of pharmaceuticals. Some of those pharmaceuticals could amplify or reverse the effects of some others. For example, some cholesterol drugs and the asthma drug salmeterol each seem to stimulate cell growth. Combined in the laboratory, they slowed it way down. The same cholesterol drug appeared to make cells more sensitive to harm from the antibiotic fluoroquinolone (Associated Press 2008).
Many independent scientists are skeptical that trace concentrations will ultimately prove to be harmful to humans. There's growing concern in the scientific community, however, that certain drugs or combinations of drugs may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day. Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage. Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.
Boiling will not solve the problem, and bottled water is misconceived as a safe water source and a way to escape the low levels of drugs found in some public water supplies. Labels on bottled water, regulated by the FDA, help consumers know what they are getting. If bottled water companies use water from municipal sources and do not treat it further to purify it, the FDA views the source as legitimate but requires the label to state that it is from a municipal or community water system. Bottled water companies that use municipal source water, but then treat and purify it by using reverse osmosis, distillation, or other processes can label it as such using terms such as "purified water" or "reverse osmosis" water. Home filtering systems with reverse osmosis reduce the medication levels.
Users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily avoid exposure. Some bottlers of water simply repackage tap water and don't test for impurities. “The one technique that does remove all contaminants is reverse osmosis but is an expensive technology”, states Redman (2008).
To conclude, it is proven that prescription drugs exist in not only tap water but in bottled as well. What can we do about this? So far, nothing has been attempted by the FDA to tackle this problem. Scientists suggest that reverse osmosis is the only sure way to remove all toxins and drugs from water sources; however it is a very expensive process. Some research shows that the amounts of drugs are miniscule and will not affect the body over time; however other studies suggest that even small levels of certain drugs can reverse the effects of medication that is taken and/or harm the body over time. So the problem is money. Will the FDA fund programs to purify all drinking water, or will they continue to do as they have done all these years, by allowing drugs to be ingested by the public through water sources? In my opinion, capitalist nation of America wins every argument if money is more of a concern than safety. It looks like the nation will be drinking other people's drugs for some time unless a major act of congress will discontinue these unsafe water practices.
References
Tilton, Adelle. (2008). Drugs in the Drinking Water. [Electric Version]. Autism Coach. 16-17.
CDC Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2006). Annual Report on Nation's Health. [Electronic Version]. Health, Trends in the Health of Americans. 513.
Paddock, Catharine PhD (2008). Drugs in U.S. Drinking Water. [Electronic Version]. Medical News Today. 3-6
Sumpter, John (2008). Don't Drink the Water. [Electronic Version]. The Associated Press National Investigative Team. 42, 19-26.
Redman, Jeremy. (2008). Drugs in your Drinking Water? No One Knows. [Electronic Version]. The Atlanta Journal Constitution. 51-59.
