Prescription Medicines in Drinking Water

Some of the latest health summits have looked at which environmental medicines are a risk to consumers. These groups recognize that the concentration of medicines found in food and water supplies is very small. Still, there is worry over even trace amounts of medicine in the American diet. At the moment, we do not know if these medicines can harm the body over several years of exposure.

Safety issues that may be linked to medicines in national water sources:

• Possible increased rates of cancer
• Possible organ damage from long periods of exposure to medicine
• Possible organ damage from the intake of unusual mixtures of medicines
• The development of antibiotic resistant bacteria

 Americans spend billions of dollars on prescription drugs every year. After being taken these medicines are eventually removed by the body and flushed into the water supply. Many people also flush unused medicines down their toilets as a means of disposal. Fortunately, medicines in the environment are found very small amounts. medicines in drinking water are usually found in parts-per-billion or parts-per-trillion quantities. such small levels supposedly do not affect human health. However, others claim that any amount of medicine can be harmful. They argue that traces of medicine can have long-term effects at even low concentrations.

The jury is still out on the health impact of medicines in the environment. Most of the data says that the current dose of medication in your food and water is too small to cause any immediate health risks. However, some experts question if this claim is true for all populations. Those with allergies to medications, for example, may be more susceptible to small doses. Environmental groups have also expressed concern for vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly. Remember that the concern is long-term effects caused by exposure over many years. The effects of this long-term exposure are yet to be determined.

Reflection: wow, it was really hard to find an article that wasn’t about cleaning out the prescription meds in drinking water. Seriously though, prescription medicines in drinking water can be really dangerous. Anyone who has seen ads for different medicines will know how many side effects a lot of these medicines have, and a lot of medicines have really bad effects when mixed with other medicines, sometimes even fatal. Even though the dose would be really small, smaller effects could happen.

Questions:

Why do people flush medicines down the toilet if they have extras that they are not going to use instead of throwing them away?

How can we prevent more medicine from getting into the water supply?

Do you think that the trace amounts will have negative long term effects?  


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