Pharmaceuticals in drinking water

[Booko]

(AP) -- A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.


To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.


But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas -- from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit, Michigan, to Louisville, Kentucky.

Here are some other links about this issue:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23504373

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/10/health/main3920454.shtml


A map with some info about where pharmaceuticals have been found:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/10/pharma.water1/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

I would encourage everyone living in the U.S. to read this material. No, a Brita water filter is not going to take any of this out.

A 5-stage osmosis water filter is about all that will. I know Kinnetco makes a good one, as does Watts Premier. I'm sure there are others.

I have a filter, which turns out to be a good thing, because these pharmaceuticals (in addition to other things that are undeclared) also contain corn substances, which makes tap water toxic to me on account of the corn allergy. When I'm traveling, I now bring my own filtered water with me. If I run out, only distilled water is known to be safe.

[beckysoup61]

Uck.

We are planning on getting a filter as soon as we move. Though, from the look of the map, I'm safe (well as safe as one can get) right now.

[Zayl]

Luckily we have well water here. put it into a brita filter and it's fine. No funny taste or other befouling substances.

[Booko]

Uck.

We are planning on getting a filter as soon as we move. Though, from the look of the map, I'm safe (well as safe as one can get) right now.

Don't count on that map to assure you're safe. Municipalities are not required to release this sort of information and usually do not unless they are brought to court.

[Booko]

Luckily we have well water here. put it into a brita filter and it's fine. No funny taste or other befouling substances.

That depends. There's been a great deal of the chemical industry in your state, Zayl. I don't know what's been your vicinity but things still end up in the water table sometimes. Pharmaceutials are probably not your problem. Heavy metals and orthochlorines, that's another subject.

Even though the chemical industry has largely moved to developing countries, where they can kill the locals with no fear from the law, the decades of abuse still remain in Michigan and generally in the entire Great Lakes basin. The Canadians (no surprise there) have done far more published research into the environmental impact than we have here.

I have a friend who works for the DNR in Michigan, and the dirty little secret in your state is that no fish are really that safe to consume, unless you go fishing in the UP.

I hope to retire back in Michigan some day, and believe me, I will be putting in my water filter, well water or not. There are too many Superfund sites around and there was way too much illegal dumping for decades, when I was growing up there.

You'll have to do some digging for good epidemiological sources, but this might be a starting place:

http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-2944_5323---,00.html

If you compare the rates in your area with some other areas, it might give you some idea of what you're up against.

[evearael]

That is terribly depressing. Booko, how much do those systems cost?

[Booko]

The Kinnetco I believe you have to get through a water company and will probably run around $600.

The Watts Premier (the one I have) is more readily available (I got mine at Lowe's originally and I think someplace like Sam's might carry them too. Mine I got for $169, but that was a few years. Somewhere in the ballpark of $200 would do.

The alternative is to buy bottled water, but then you have to lug the stuff around, and there are no regulations to stop someone from just bottling tap water and charging you for it like they actually did something useful, so I'm not so keen on that.

An alternative might be the "refill your own water jug" you can find at grocery stores, which is probably the most affordable if having a system at home is not in the finances.

Clearly the most at risk to have any effect would be infants and small children, just because they have less body weight. We didn't have a filtration unit when our kids were little, but we did spring for the filtered water at the store for the kids when they were very little.

There are all sorts of claims that there is no danger, and that might be so. But it's not like anyone's been studying it either, so really that's more of a guess. And how many times have I heard "oh it's perfectly safe!" and that turned out to be anything but true?

[seyorni]

Filters are not necessarily going to remove the pharmaceuticals, those aren't the contaminants they're designed for.
The grey states are not necessarily safe -- they just haven't looked.

[Booko]

Filters are not necessarily going to remove the pharmaceuticals, those aren't the contaminants they're designed for.

It depends on the sort of filtration. Osmosis will, other than that it's distillation pretty much.

But drinking distilled water all the time isn't necessarily a good thing either. We do actually get some of our minerals from water.

The grey states are not necessarily safe -- they just haven't looked.

Or they aren't tellin' ;)

Really, I can understand the reticence. You know there will be people who totally panic over it and do something even sillier like stop drinking water.

Still, you would think it would be possible to get the information on what we put into our bodies, if we have some reason to bother to ask. I had no idea there might be corn stuff in my drinking water. It's a good thing someone who would be using an Epipen in response to tap water clued me in on the possibility. :yes: