Drinking Water--Some Troubling News
Most of the families whom I meet in the course of my work are knowledgeable about health issues and concerned about what their children are encountering in the course of daily life.
A new report from the Associated Press is an example of why their concerns are justified. It found that a vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — are in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.
Fortunately, the concentrations of the pharmaceuticals are tiny, and far below the levels of a medical dose.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
In the course of a five-month inquiry, the investigation detected drugs in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas - from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.
Here are some of the key test results:
In Philadelphia, there were 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water
.
The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.
For further information, you can turn to http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/100038.php
If you want to take action now, there are fortunately a range of water purifying systems that you can buy to assure fresh, clean water for your family. If you had been asked about this issue a couple of decades back, you probably would never have been thinking along these lines. This is but one more example of the dramatic changes that are occurring in our environment and our lives. But still and all, it is nice that we have positive avenues to pursue.
