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Pharmaceuticals Found in Drinking Water
AOL ^ | 3/9/08 | AP Staff

Posted on 03/09/2008 4:13:43 PM PDT by xtinct

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 to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drinkingwater; drugs; foodsupply; health; medicine; water
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the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

Can you say stampeed once the nitwits who purchase bottled water (** most brands bottled from tap water in NJ) realize they sucking down all kinds of drugs daily???

**I know this happy fact because in 2003 I had to argue with my professor about my grade in an advertising class. He thought it was un-American of me to point out that nitwit consummers would actually purchase tap water if it was bottled nicely... chuckle !!! I got an A.

1 posted on 03/09/2008 4:13:43 PM PDT by xtinct
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To: xtinct

Is this the same as drugs in the drinking water, an earlier thread?


2 posted on 03/09/2008 4:16:07 PM PDT by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: xtinct

Old cavalry wisdom. Put the latrines downstream and get the water upstream. Keep the horses in-between.


3 posted on 03/09/2008 4:18:49 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (John McCain - The Manchurian Candidate? http://www.usvetdsp.com/manchuan.htm)
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To: xtinct
"To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny"

I think that story would rate a "to be sure" monkey from Laura Ingraham.

4 posted on 03/09/2008 4:19:22 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes (Bill Clinton: Life Member of the Liars' Club.)
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To: All; neverdem

It doesn’t say if the pharms have broken down to the point where it virtually has no effect. Are they intact or are they finding traces of the individual chemicals that make up a pharm?


5 posted on 03/09/2008 4:23:47 PM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!)
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To: xtinct

Makes me glad I have a well. Not perfect, but better than recycled clorinated water.


6 posted on 03/09/2008 4:28:17 PM PDT by Southerngl
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To: xtinct

Yo, I was one of those nitwits ten years ago that bought bulk Evian.

Right now, I’m on a well - SILT ALERT!!!


7 posted on 03/09/2008 4:28:39 PM PDT by Baladas
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To: xtinct
--A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.

Big surprise there with all the transexuals here. LOL!

8 posted on 03/09/2008 4:29:44 PM PDT by Tamar1973 (Riding the Korean Wave, one recipe at a time http://www.youtube.com/Tamar1973)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Morgana

I’ve got one :o)... and have been boiling my tap water for the last 10 years...


10 posted on 03/09/2008 4:34:45 PM PDT by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: Morgana
I have a Britta water filter too, but according to the article they don't filter all of it out.

You should read the original article and the comments section. It's all Reagan/Bush's fault of course...even though they are finding the same stuff in the water in Canada and Japan. LOL!

11 posted on 03/09/2008 4:35:02 PM PDT by Tamar1973 (Riding the Korean Wave, one recipe at a time http://www.youtube.com/Tamar1973)
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To: xtinct
"nitwits who purchase bottled water"

Nit wits don't buy bottled water, they buy convenience, same as smart people. One would have to be less than a nitwit not to know that.


12 posted on 03/09/2008 4:37:01 PM PDT by I see my hands (_8(|)
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To: I see my hands
conveniece --> knew that... that's why I got the A

Had to sell the bottled water to the nitwits.

It worked too :o)

13 posted on 03/09/2008 4:38:57 PM PDT by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: raybbr
It doesn’t say if the pharms have broken down to the point where it virtually has no effect.

They found both the drugs and their metabolic products. Not necessarily breakdown products. For one synthetic sex hormone, they found that the body adds chemical groups to the drug and excretes the modified drug, and then bacteria in the sewage plant remove the groups and reactivate the drug.

They found that male fish downstream of sewage plants were becoming feminized -- developing early-stage eggs in their testes.

(Those of you who don't like statements beginning "They found" can check the article in Chemical & Engineering News, Feb 25, p 13 for details.)

14 posted on 03/09/2008 4:45:57 PM PDT by omega4412
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To: raybbr

Take a look here and be very afraid:

http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/report.htm

/sarcasm


15 posted on 03/09/2008 4:56:37 PM PDT by EBH ( ... the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness. --Alculin c.735-804)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: xtinct
A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.

Why am I not surprised.

17 posted on 03/09/2008 5:13:23 PM PDT by Obadiah
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To: xtinct

Call me when it gets into the Scotch supply.


18 posted on 03/09/2008 5:16:11 PM PDT by SampleMan (We are a free and industrious people, socialist nannies do not become us.)
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To: Southerngl

We have been on a well on our rural land for the past 22 years. Our water here is sulfur water, but we filter it through two underhouse filters, then I filter it again through a Brita filter into a big refrigerator container with a spigot. It’s not perfect, but it’s passable and much better than the chlorinated city stuff. - Heh. The people out here got up in arms and demanded that the city pipe water out to them (no small task as we’re twenty miles from town). - I’m hoping we can simplify our purification and filtering method, are looking at a water softener that supposedly purifies without adding salt or chemicals. - Getting under the house every two or three months is sort of a pain, and my husband changes the filters as I just don’t have enough strength in my arms to do it myself.


19 posted on 03/09/2008 5:23:04 PM PDT by Twinkie (Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God . . .)
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To: SampleMan

Germany discovered this almost ten years ago.


20 posted on 03/09/2008 5:24:31 PM PDT by desertlily
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