Prescription Drugs In Your Drinking Water

06/13/07

By Dr. Dana Myatt

File this in the "unbelievable but true" folder. If you drink tap water, you may be drinking other people's prescription drugs.

As if there weren't enough concerns about the health and safety of drinking water from agricultural pollutants, mercury and other heavy metals, and even "safe" additives like chlorine and fluoride, now we have another poison to concern ourselves with: other people's prescription and OTC drugs. Yuk!

An estimated 10% or more of the water you drink has been drunk by someone else before you. The same water that existed on Earth millions of years ago is the same water we are drinking and using today, to the drop! Our planet continuously recycles and re-uses this finite supply of water. Many people don't appreciate how fragile and finite our water resources really are. Today, we are finding traces of compounds in our water, including many prescription drugs,  that no one ever thought to look for before.

As early as 2002, a John's Hopkins University press release stated, "Prescription Drug Pollution May Harm Humans, Aquatic Life: Engineers Develop Tools to Track Pharmaceuticals Originating in Human Waste." According to this study, "The millions of doses of prescription drugs that Americans swallow annually to combat cancer, pain, depression and other ailments do not disappear harmlessly into their digestive systems, researchers have determined, but instead make their way back into the environment where they may contaminate drinking water and pose a threat to aquatic wildlife."

The problem, according to researchers, is that many of these drugs pass through the body unchanged --- meaning that they will affect unwitting consumers of the drug the same way they affect those who are knowingly taking them. Waste water treatment apparently does not remove most of these drugs from drinking water and sewage. Your tap water can contain antibiotics, prozac, carbamazepine and primidone (antiepileptic drugs), clofibric acid, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, p-toluenesulfonamide, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and N-butyl benzenesulfonamide (N-BBSA) and numerous other drugs and chemicals.

So what's wrong with a little daily free Prozac? (said with tongue-in-cheek). One of the biggest problems for humans is the antibiotic residues. Researchers estimate that at least 10,000 deaths occur annually from drug-resistant strains of "super bugs." Drug resistance occurs with overuse (and inappropriate use) of medical antibiotics, plus our unwitting consumption of additional antibiotics in meat, dairy products and now, water.

The thought of drinking someone else's drugs (and Goddess only knows what else) makes me feel beyond queasy. That is why I live in an area where I have pure well water to drink. But for those who have community and municipal water sources, a home water purification that uses reverse osmosis has been shown to filter out these disgusting contaminants.

Of course, you can buy bottled water, but you still don't really know what you're getting. And even if the water is decent, the plastic jugs it is stored in can confer plasticizers into the water. For my money, a quality water filter is a sound investment in good health. Besides, it's great to be able to drink "tap water" (and know that it's clean) instead of always hoping that store-bought bottled water is fit to drink.

If you are looking for a way to purify your water, I recommend this line of Aquasana Water Purifiers . They are among some of the most highly rated purifiers in the country, and affordable as well. Don't forget your shower water! When your pores are open, you can absorb toxins almost as easily as drinking them. A shower-head filter can make your bathing safe as well.

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Nurse Mark adds: Here is another view on the Poisoning of Our Water, by cartoon creator Mike Adams
Adams has the following to say about his cartoon:

"I regretfully used the typical "terrorist" clothing here only as a way to create a visual connection with the expectation of terrorism in the minds of most Americans. The truth is, terrorists don't really dress like they just walked out of a Middle Eastern desert. Most terrorists wear business suits, and if you define a terrorist as someone who engages in the harm or the threat of harm of human beings in order to achieve a political goal, then the worst terrorists of all are the politicians running the FDA, who have indirectly killed over half a million Americans since 9/11 by using tools of terrorism: Threats, intimidation, disinformation, censorship and worse. (It's all part of the FDA's effort to silence the truth about the healing power of nutrition and herbs while pushing a pro-pharma agenda that kills Americans while enriching drug companies.)"  www.newstarget.com