Pharmaceutical substances in drinking water
Pharmaceutical substances in the water are consumed by 41 million Americans according to a recent Associated Press survey. The pharmaceutical products found in their drinking water include antibiotics, caffeine, mood stabilizers, sexual hormones, etc.
The research emerged after five months of examinations, and various substances were detected in the drinking water of the 24 largest metropolitan areas.
· In Washington, for example, they found seven pharmaceutical substances in the water. Some of these are ingredients used in soap or others that are administered to animals. Other substances found include caffeine, carbamazepine – a medication for reducing seizures, monensin – an antibiotic given to animals, sulfamethoxazole – an antibiotic that can be used to treat infections in humans and animals.
· In Philadelphia, 56 pharmaceutical by-products were discovered in the drinking water, including pain medications, infection treatments, high cholesterol drugs, asthma medications, epilepsy treatments, mental illness medications, and heart problem medications.
How do drugs enter the water?
People consume pharmaceutical pills. The body absorbs only 10% of the dosage, and the rest exits through the toilet. Over 100 pharmaceutical formulations have been found worldwide.
LIST OF PHARMACEUTICAL SUBSTANCES CONCENTRATIONS
ANTIBIOTICS
Amoxicillin – Azithromycin – Bacitracin – Chloramphenicol – Ciprofloxacin – Doxycycline – Erythromycin – Lincomycin – Oxytetracycline – Penicillin G – Penicillin V – Roxithromycin – Sulfadiazine – Sulfamethizole – Sulfamethoxazole – Tetracyclines – Trimethoprim
PAIN RELIEVERS
Acetaminophen Antipyretic – Aspirin – Diclofenac – Ibuprofen – Naproxen – Prednisone
HARD MEDICINES
Atenolol – Bezafibrate – Clofibric Acid – Diltiazem – Simvastatin – Carbamazepine – Diazepam – Fluoxetine – Meprobamate – Phenytoin – Risperidone
Other Human Drugs
Caffeine – Cotinine – Iopromide – Nicotine – Paraxanthine – Theophylline
VETERINARY MEDICINES
Carbadox – Animal feed in Chlortetracycline – Enrofloxacin – Monensin – Narasin – Oleandomycin – Salinomycin – Sulfachloropyridazine – Sulfadimethoxine – Sulfamerazine – Sulfamethazine – Sulfathiazole – Tylosin – Virginiamycin M1
Effects on human health
Recent laboratory studies have found that quantities of these drugs have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells, and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells multiplied excessively quickly, the kidney cells grew very slowly, and the blood cells showed biological activity related to inflammation.
Also, pharmaceutical products harm wildlife throughout the country and around the world. In particular, male fish are undergoing feminization, producing egg yolk proteins, a process that is usually limited to females.
Moreover, there are many concerns regarding chronic exposure to these substances that focus on the category of drugs related to chemotherapy, such as hormones that can interfere with reproduction or development, medications related to depression and epilepsy that can harm the brain or alter behavior, antibiotics that can allow human microbes to mutate into more dangerous forms, and many others.
Other known effects for men are:
- Lower sperm count
- Fewer births
- Increase in reproductive anomalies
- Increase in testicular cancer
Other known effects for women are:
- Increase in breast cancer
- Precocious puberty
- Greater risk in developing embryos
- Mothers who drink water with high levels of Ammonium have children with elevated thyroid stimulating hormone.
Antidepressant Pollution
Prozac contaminates Britain’s drinking water
Tons of all kinds of medications end up in urban sewage and from there into the environment.
London
The antidepressant Prozac has been detected in rivers and groundwater that supply drinking water to Britain, announced the country’s Environment Agency, referring to “potentially toxic effects.
