Pharmaceuticals in drinking water

41 million Americans are getting pharmaceuticals in their water according to a recent Associated Press survey. The drug products found in their drinking water are antibiotics, caffeine, mood stabilizers, sex hormones, etc.

– The research came after five months of testing and the various substances were detected in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan areas.

– In Washington, for example, they found seven pharmaceuticals in the water. Some of these are ingredients used in soap or others administered to animals. Other substances found are caffeine, carbamazepine – a drug to reduce seizures, monensin – an antibiotic given to animals, sulfamethoxazole – an antibiotic that can be used to treat infections in humans and animals.

– In Philadelphia, 56 pharmaceutical by-products were discovered in drinking water including drugs for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People consume medicinal pills. The body takes in only 10% of the amount and the other 10% is taken out by going to the toilet. Over 100 drug formulations have been found all over the world.

LIST OF CONCENTRATIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL SUBSTANCES

ANTIBIOTICS

Amoxicillin – Azithromycin – Bacitracin – Chloramphenicol – Ciprofloxacin – Doxycycline – Erythromycin – Lincomycin – Oxytetracycline – Penicillin G – Penicillin V – Roxithromycin – Sulfadiazine – Sulfamethizole – Sulfamethizole – Sulfamethoxazole – Tetracycline – Trimethoprim

DRUGS AGAINST PAIN

Acetaminophen Antipyrine – Aspirin – Diclofenac – Ibuprofen – Naproxen – Prednisone

HARD DRUGS

Atenolol – Bezafibrate – Clofibric Acid – Diltiazem – Simvastatin – Carvamazepine – Diazepam – Fluoxetine – Meprobamate – Phenytoin – Risperidone

Other Human Drugs

Caffeine – Cotinine – Iopromide – Nicotine – Paraxanthine – Theophylline

VETERINARY MEDICINAL PRODUCTS

Carbadox – Feed to Chlorotetracycline – Enrofloxacin – Monensin – Narasin – Oleandomycin – Salinomycin – Sulfachloropyridazine – Sulfadimethoxine – Sulfamerazine – Sulfamethazine – Sulfathiazole – Tylosin – Virginiamycin M1

Effects on human health

Recent laboratory research has found that quantities of these drugs have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly, the kidney cells grew too slowly, and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

Pharmaceuticals also harm wildlife across the country and around the world. In particular, male fish are in the process of feminization, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females.

In addition, many concerns about chronic exposure to these substances are focused on the class of drugs related to chemotherapy, such as hormones that can interfere with reproduction or growth, drugs related to depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behaviour, antibiotics that can allow human microbes to mutate into more dangerous forms, and many others.

Other known effects for men are :

• Less sperm count
• Fewer births
• Increase in reproductive abnormalities
• Increase in testicular cancer

Other known effects for women include:

• Increase in breast cancer
• Early puberty
• Greater risk to developing embryos
• Mothers who drink water with high levels of Ammonium have children with elevated thyroid stimulating hormone.

Anti-compensatory pollution

Prozac contaminates Britain’s drinking water
Tons of all kinds of drugs end up in municipal sewage and from there into the environment

London

The antidepressant Prozac has been detected in rivers and groundwater that supply Britain’s drinking water, the Environment Agency has announced, citing “potentially toxic effects”.