Excreted Tamiflu found in rivers: If birds hosting flu virus are exposed to the waterborne...

Science News ^ | September 30th, 2009 | Janet Raloff

[neverdem]

If birds hosting flu virus are exposed to the waterborne pollutant, they might develop drug-resistant strains, chemists worry

The premier flu-fighting drug is contaminating rivers downstream of sewage-treatment facilities, researchers in Japan confirm. The source: urinary excretion by people taking oseltamivir phosphate, best known as Tamiflu.

Concerns are now building that birds, which are natural influenza carriers, are being exposed to waterborne residues of Tamiflu’s active form and might develop and spread drug-resistant strains of seasonal and avian flu.

For their new study, Gopal Ghosh and his colleagues at Kyoto University sampled water discharged from three local sewage treatment plants and water at several points along two rivers into which the treated water flowed. Sampling started early in December 2008, as flu season got underway. The researchers sampled again at the height of the seasonal flu’s onslaught in early February and again as infection rates waned.

Tamiflu’s active form, oseltamivir carboxylate or OC, turned up in the treated sewage on every occasion, the researchers report online September 28 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Values were in the low nanograms per liter range during the first and last samplings, and reached a high of almost 300 ng/L at one outflow during the flu’s peak, a week when there were 1,738 recorded flu cases in Kyoto.

River residues showed up during only that second sampling — from low nanogram levels at most sampling points to a high of 190 ng/L in a portion of the Nishitakase River where treated sewage accounts for 90 percent of the flow.

Computer modeling has shown that OC should survive sewage treatment, notes Wolf von Tümpling Jr. of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, a federal institute in Magdeburg, Germany. Ghosh’s team is now the first to confirm this, he says...

[4Godsoloved..Hegave]

Reverse Osmosis is the only way to go. We use it exclusively for cooking, drinking and any other pure use we want to eg, humidifier. One interesting tidbit we have gathered is: We have used Reverse Osmosis water for 20 yrs. since our oldest were born. Our children come from all different backgrounds. Only 2 cavities total for all 7 children. Fluoride only used when brushing teeth and even then we did baking soda only for several of those years. Good nutrition and oral hygiene thrown in for good measure. According to those insisting on fluoridating our water our children should be in a world of hurt because Reverse Osmosis removes chlorine, fluoride and a host of other contaminants in our water.

Best water quality you can find, right from your own tap.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...(Thanks, neverdem!)

Keep up with other H1N1 update stories on this thread: H1N1 flu victim collapsed on way to hospital [Latest H1N1 updates downthread] thanks to DvdMom and others.

[glock rocks]

Maybe it’ll help keep the ducks and fish from catching the flu... I’m gonna eat some tamiflu and pee in a river!

[NeoCaveman]

Khadaffi was right. Here comes the fish flu...

And here I thought he was just being crazy, again.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks neverdem. I heard the cottonwoods whisperin’ above...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re welcome!

[allmost]

Thankfully I'm a little older and wiser and have found that I can fool myself into enjoying near-beer (non-alcoholic). :)

Vitamins in water are a little less problematic than hormone and endocrine disruptors. If you take a multivitamin for instance, your body will eliminate a majority of it because it can't be absorbed at one time. If you drink 8 glasses of water throughout the day, spread out, whatever is in that water will affect you to some extent. Iron in drinking water is very common and contributes to high blood pressure in many people. I'd personally rather have that than than chemicals known to cause androgyny in animals.

[allmost]

The cleaner the water the better.