What’s coming out of your faucet? You might not want to know

This is Your Brain on Water

Does your tap water smell a little…off?

It might be the Prozac.

Pharma water

Sex hormones, antibiotics, mood stabilizers, and anti-convulsants are just some of the pharmaceuticals you’re very likely picking up every day in your drinking water.

The good news: No extra charge for that!

Over the years, we’ve seen occasional reports about drugs in drinking water. In the e-Alert “Air Freshener” (11/5/03), I told you about a Baylor University toxicologist, who discovered traces of Prozac’s active ingredient (fluoxetine) in the tissue of fish in a Dallas, Texas, lake. The scientist speculated that the fluoxetine made its way from the urine of Prozac users, through a water treatment plant, and into the lake.

In 2004 the BBC reported that traces of Prozac had been found in UK community water supplies. In this case, the same path was expected: urine to water treatment to open waters, eventually returning to the drinking water supply.

I’m trying not to let my imagination linger too long on the idea that components of urine find their way back into our faucets. Instead, I wonder just how much is actually there. A Drinking Water Inspectorate spokesman told the BBC that the Prozac was “most likely highly diluted.”

Most likely! Well that’s VERY comforting!

Hang on to your hat

Who can say for sure just how much of any drug is making it’s way into our water?

Actually, the U.S. government can. Sort of. Because according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation, the EPA “unintentionally” follows drug data by tracking waterway industrial chemicals, some of which the FDA happens to classify as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Funny thing…turns out urine is not quite the only source of drugs in our water supply.

The AP reports that over the past 20 years, at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals have been released into U.S. waterways. And because the EPA tracking system is limited, the AP describes that number as “a massive undercount.”

And here’s a fun fact: It’s COMPLETELY LEGAL to release all those compounds into open waters.

Of course, drug makers claim their manufacturing methods don’t contribute to the drug content of drinking water – an easy claim to make when discharge from production plants isn’t routinely monitored. As a former EPA enforcement officer told the AP: “It doesn’t pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they’re creating.”

Is there any upside to this revelation about our drinking water? Well, if tap water is teeming with drugs, it’s probably also laced with dietary supplements. So if we’re ingesting a pinch of Prozac and a dash of Lipitor every day, at least we may also be getting a smidgen of fish oil and a touch of vitamin E (hopefully as mixed tocopherols, of course).

Source:
“AP IMPACT: Tons of Release Drugs Taint US Water” Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza, and Justin Pritchard, Associated Press, 4/20/09, washingtonpost.com