2009 June | Paul Zorn

Digital Aquarium Thermometer with probe Fish Tank Water
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US $.99

Digital Aquarium Thermometer with probe Fish Tank Water
Paypal

US $.99

Digital Aquarium Thermometer with probe Fish Tank Water
Paypal

US $.99

How Do Pharmaceutical Drugs Get in Drinking Water ?

Associated Press has sparked off a very important debate. They have conducted an extensive survey into the drinking water from various parts of the country (24 major cities to be precise) and had it tested for pharmaceutical drugs. The results are shocking. the probe finds drugs in drinking water. There are forty one million Americans who are drinking water with traces of medications for ailments such as pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many kinds of prescription drugs in the water system that it is hard to fathom. It is an alarming issue which much be addressed forthwith before it gets out of hand. Visit home water purification to discover how to select the very best water filtration system for your home or office.

The biggest question is how do pharmaceutical drugs get in drinking water in the first place. Well, there are quite a few ways of this happening - the first being the excreta way. Medications prescribed to people are not entirely absorbed by the body. A lot of it passes out through the excreta ending up in the sewage system. The filtration plants that treat this sewage water are ill-equipped to handle contaminants such as pharmaceutical drugs. As a result, these medications come full circle into the glass of drinking water- ready to be ingested. The second mode of travel for these drugs is the direct disposal into the toilet. Unused or spoilt medications are flushed away into the sewage system where the whole process repeats! The most serious part is that this is done not only by individuals but also by hospitals and clinics!

Another way for these drugs to show up in the drinking water is by the runoff and leaching. Usually treatment plants happen to be upstream from the water sources. As a result, the contaminated water goes back into the aquifers and ground table. Runoffs are common off the farms where animals are given various medications to make them healthier – growth promoting drugs, antibiotics etc. These too reach the ground table, streams, rivers – surface water and aquifers and contaminate our drinking water. No amount of treatment ever clears the drugs since the treating matter is not suited for such harmful agents. This is pollution at a whole new level.

When Associated Press carried out its five –month long study, it was working on inputs from various journals and other material. The levels of the drugs unearthed by the probe is relatively miniscule. However, it’s not the amount that is alarming at this time. It is the fact that the traces have been increasing regularly. Moreover, it’s not as though a person drinks the contaminated water once and the tiny traces have no effect. Water is essential for survival and drinking at least eight glasses of this drug infected water can be detrimental to your health. And this is while you are a healthy individual. Now think of the little children and the elderly! How would they be able to withstand the effects of say anti-epileptic pills? It is in everyone’s interest to act now before the contamination is too high to control.

About the Author

Al Bracher has been researching water purification methods for several years. Visit home water purification to discover how to select the very best water filtration system for your home or office.