UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 03 March 2008 - Drug-infested contamination of municipal drinking water supplies!  Not the usual description of the 45,000+ public water systems that serve the US population. 

But according to a newly released AP investigative report, roughly 24 major metropolitan areas representing about 41 million people – from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit, Michigan to Louisville, Kentucky – are currently impacted by contaminated drinking water supplies. 

Members of an AP National Investigate Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking databases, visited treatment plants, and interviewed over 230 officials. They also surveyed the 50 largest US cities, a dozen other major water providers as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

As a result of this 5 month study, the Team discovered the presence of an array of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies – including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones. 

Traces of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen are just a few of the drugs identified in the water along with caffeine and triclo-carbon, a disinfectant that is used in antibacterial soap products.

If you ask the representatives of the pharmaceutical industry whether contamination of drinking water supplies is a problem, a negative response is extended. 

However, there is enough scientific evidence to demonstrate that pharmaceutical contaminations are affecting organisms and wildlife.  

Pharmaceutical traces in the water systems are being blamed for severe reproduction problems in many types of fish. And other forms of wildlife have also been affected – such as kidney failure in vultures, impaired reproduction in mussels, and inhibited growth in algae.

And while the concentration of these pharmaceuticals found in the drinking water is small, the long-term consequences to human health are beginning to worry scientists. 

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

The problem is not confined to surface water. It is interesting to note that the AP investigation indicates that many of the US watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation’s water supply, are also contaminated with pharmaceutical discharge/waste. And pharmaceuticals have permeated aquifers deep underground – a source of 40% of the country’s water supply.

Ben Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the US Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that the presence of pharmaceutical contamination in the nation’s drinking water sources is “a growing concern.” The agency has now developed new methods to “detect and quantify pharmaceuticals” in water.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) along with Senator Barbara Boxer (California) has announced their joint intention to hold a Congressional hearing into the discovery of pharmaceutical drugs in the US municipal water supplies. 

And Representative Allyson Schwartz (Pennsylvania) has asked the US-EPA to establish a national taskforce to investigate the issue of pharmaceutical-contaminated drinking water and make recommendations to Congress on any legislative actions needed.

It is important to recognize that pharmaceutical contamination of drinking water is not confined to the United States.  

Scientists have found more than a hundred different pharmaceutical traces in public waterways (lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams) throughout the world.  

Icy streams in the United Kingdom, wild game reserves in South Africa, rivers in China, the coastal shores of Singapore, the Norwegian coast, the North Sea, Swiss lakes, Canadian water supplies, and Japanese water systems – to name a few - have all indicated a presence of pharmaceuticals in their drinking water sources.

Labels: United Nations, U.N., MaximsNews WATER,  Water, Sanitation, water contamination, pharmaceutical contamination, U.S.A., US municipal water supplies, pharmaceutical drugs

 

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