Does the idea of being "drugged" by your drinking water sound crazy? If you drink tap water, you could be ingesting more than just H2O.
Americans consume millions of doses of prescription drugs every year. Add to that the millions of doses given to livestock. In some cases, 90% of these chemicals are excreted back into the environment, unchanged - and that's not counting the pharmaceuticals that are intentionally discarded. Much of this is showing up in ground water, rivers, and even our drinking water! But pharmaceuticals are not regulated as pollutants ... and most sewage plants are not equipped to remove them.
Problems are already showing up in the environment. Scientists in Maryland found that estrogen from birth control pills has deformed the reproductive organs of smallmouth bass. And researchers in Georgia and Mississippi discovered that the antidepressant Prozac is killing tadpoles.
In some parts of the country, drinking water is also showing signs of contamination. In January, for example, the
Associated Press reported on pharmaceuticals in the Los Angeles drinking water supply. Granted, the levels are small. But we simply don't know the effects of ingesting microdoses of a hundred different drugs over a lifetime.
In the past, I've given several reasons to avoid unfiltered tap water. Add "pharmaceutical pollution" to that list. If you don't already have one, invest in a reverse-osmosis water filter for your home. It will remove the contaminants the water company misses ... as well as those they intentionally add (like chlorine and fluoride).
- Jon Herring
