Prescription Needed to Drink American Tap Water
I’m not sure I’m supposed to be taking all this head lice medication with these birth control pills, and I’m definitely not heartened to see the AP reporting Sunday that major drugmaking factories in America have legally dumped 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that serve more than 51 million people – fundamentally effecting the ecosystem as well as human tissue.
The AP investigation found trace amounts of antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones like lithium, nitroglycerin, and estrogen during their ongoing journalistic masterstroke. The dirty details:
- 8 million pounds of the skin bleaching cream hydroquinone
- 3 million pounds of nicotine compounds that can be used in quit-smoking patches
- 10,000 pounds of the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochlorids
- treatments for head lice and worms.
The best part is,—
no one knows how much is dumped, where or when. No one watches it. Even though:
Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.
Another report from the USGS is due out on the subject this year.
[AP]
