Things to worry about today number one: Drug Traces Common In Drinking Water

[koganbot]

According to AP story Drug Traces Common In Tap Water (title a bit misleading, since the drug traces may well be common in filtered and bottled water too; and by drugs they also mean hormones and the like, pharmaceuticals in general)

Summary:

--Trace amounts of drugs, hormones, etc. are common in drinking water sources, including headwaters and aquifers (get into the environment from humans and livestock excreting the pharmaceuticals into sewage and from leakage in manufacturing)
--The long-term effects of these traces of pharmaceuticals on humans and other living things is not well understood, but studies of wildlife are disturbing (e.g., male fish developing female characteristics), and medications are of special concern because most are designed to work on the human body - this doesn't mean that they're necessarily dangerous in these trace amounts but rather that we don't know
--There are no standards or regulations regarding their presence
--There isn't extensive screening yet to see how much is in the water
--There are no current sewage systems designed to remove pharmaceuticals
--The current technologies that could remove the pharmaceuticals may be prohibitively inefficient and expensive

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

This does actually seriously worry me; my housemates and I were having a discussion re: the number of women on the pill concetrated in London and consequent concentration of female hormones in Thames Water supplies etc. ...I wonder how long that'll be allowed to go on, since the female hormones in the pill have extremely negative and potentially fatal (stroke) side effects for me and if I was to consume a large quantity of the tap water, over time it would presumably kill me and everyone else with the same intolerance. The fact it'd make everyone infertile aside, obviously.

It's particularly the female hormones that worry me, since they're sort of... unnecessary isn't totally the word but they're non-essential. I mean, obviously the other drugs are a concern but in particular in this country there are a hell of a lot of people taking hormones and indeed it's virtually NHS policy to hand the pill to any female under 40 that goes to the doctor, just in case.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think you'd have to drink a heck of a lot of water dearest...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, obviously currently it's not at a particularly dangerous level at all. However, if it were to continue unchecked etc.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ah, we'll all be dead by then anyway ;)

[koganbot]

Well, the argument is that everybody drinks water every day, so trace amounts over many years can have a real effect, and we just don't know what it is (but there's worry about fish and amphibians, and since these drugs are designed for humans and livestock, and have side effects, and often have strange effects when combined...).

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

but i think we're talking like fractions of parts per million aren't we?

at least there's no cholera in it...

[koganbot]

Well, they don't know if the levels are dangerous, actually. Not dangerous for one swallow, but for sustained consumption over years (and it's not as if we can choose not to ingest H2O).

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I hear you re: hormones - even normal fluctuations hit me up good and proper, artificial doses are actually unbearable for me. However I think other London-related health risks (eg air pollution, stress, terrorism) outweigh the hormone thing.

Hmmm. I don't doubt that dudes are more infertile these days because of hormones in drinking water, but if you think about it, if everyone's on the pill anyway then clearly they *don't* want to get preggers? I guess it's a bit much asking everyone who is trying to conceive to start chugging away on Evian though. I dunno.

[koganbot]

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