Drugs in our drinking water
Drugs in our drinking water
Here’s a conversation we might soon overhear in a trendy, upscale restaurant
Waiter: Today’s beverage special is a fresh tap water flown in from Los Angeles just this morning – very high in antidepressants.
Customer: I don’t know. I’m not feeling depressed really. Do you have anything with sex hormones?
Waiter: Ah, the Ohio estrogen. No I’m afraid we’re out. That’s a big seller.
Everyone seemed surprised by the recent revelation that traces of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones, and a variety of other drugs turned up in the tap water in nearly 25 major U.S. population centers.
But for long-time e-Alert readers this really isn’t news.
In the e-Alert “Air Freshener” (11/5/03), I told you about Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University toxicologist, who discovered traces of Prozac’s active ingredient (fluoxetine) in the tissue of blue gill fish in a lake in Dallas, Texas. Brooks speculated that the fluoxetine made its way from the urine of Prozac users, through a water treatment plant, and into the lake.
And a 2004 UK investigation that found traces of an antidepressant in drinking water was reported in the e-Alert “Cold Beers” (8/18/04).
If it can happen in Dallas AND the UK, you’ve got to think it can happen anywhere.
Since most water filters apparently don’t catch these drugs, I guess the best you can hope for is that you live in a town where people take more vitamins than drugs.
Distilled water anyone?
