And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies — which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public — have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.
So, yeah, I am alarmed, but I think I am duly alarmed. They have found sex hormones, anitbiotics, epilepsy medication, heart medications, mood stabalizing meds, cholesterol medications...
Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's [Philadelphia] watersheds.
But wait, there's more. Not only are drugs from people in the drinking water, so are all the drugs they give to factory farmed animals.
Human waste isn't the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized. A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.
Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.
Other veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, dementia, and even obesity — sometimes with the same drugs as humans. The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.
Filtered water and well water are also not safe. Well water is evidently contaminated by chemicals seeping into the ground from septic tanks. This whole thing makes me mad because I try really hard to not put things into my body that it doesn't need. I don't even take advil unless I am in SEVERE pain. So, what's a girl to do?? I think I'll be switching to underground glacier water.
