Pharmaceutical Residue in Drinking Water

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SpirivaSunrise

SpirivaSunrise

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Just read this article...it's currently on the front page of Yahoo...kind of interesting to read what they detect (even though it's in such small quantities). What are all of your thoughts?

AP probe finds drugs in drinking water
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They have yet to determine if this from human elimination of the drug via the urinary tract or manual disposal of unused medication into water supply. One can be more easily controlled than the other.
 
Just found out this morning from the news that we have ibuprofen and antipsychotics in our county's drinking water...:love: Just glad we didn't have the seven antibiotics like Fairfax county...
 
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and look at heavy abx use at dairies and pig farms. Livestock people love FQs...
 
It's really not that new either. Or at least one could have forseen it. At least two years ago (probably farther back) they were writing about drugs found in irrigation water, drinking water was the next logical progression.
 
Interesting, but at least they studies in the article I looked at seemed kind of weak and/or not that closely related to actual exposure in humans.
 
Yeah....well....no ****. Where else are drugs excreted renally unchanged suppossed to go? Magical fairy land? Maybe we could have septic systems specifically designed for people on Augmentin....
 
I remember my friend told me there was detectable levels of cocaine in the british water system.

0.0000001 umol/L of random drugs... life goes on.
 
I studied this yeears ago in my water classes as an undergrad, nothing new IMO. First time I've seen something in mainstream news though.

I think the biggest problem we'll face is the residue affecting lower animals, and possible bioamplification or food chain disruption.
 
My dad is an environmental engineer and he told me a few weeks ago that this information was going to be released. Basically he said that the amounts of these drugs are so small and they are not harmful to us at all. Also since the technology is more advanced now it is showing more things in the water. No big deal really. I bet some people will get bent out of shape about it though.
 
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SexyPlexi said:
My dad is an environmental engineer and he told me a few weeks ago that this information was going to be released. Basically he said that the amounts of these drugs are so small and they are not harmful to us at all. Also since the technology is more advanced now it is showing more things in the water. No big deal really. I bet some people will get bent out of shape about it though.
Click to expand...

No kidding-people are running around campus today FREAKING OUT about this.

I say "HEY! Why don't you try freaking out about your MIDTERM EXAMS that are THIS FREAKING WEEK-you can control those!"
 
Yeah and then the bottled water sales are going to sky rocket. :rolleyes:
 
haha, bottled water is the worst. More dangerous than tap water!

But seriously, you need to drink about 120 olympic sized pools worth of tap water to get one therapeutic dose of any given drug that's found in there.
 
I'm amazed at how few of you had heard of this before. The general public is acting like this is brand new news.

What I want to know is when will there be enough estrogen and progesterone in the water that tap water will behave like birth control pills....


Seriously, when they're talking PPM and PPB, it's such a minute quantity... like, I ride horses. And at the uber-elite levels there is a zero-tolerance policy on any drugs - NSAIDs, antihistamines, anything (in the horse). If someone accidentally used the wrong liniment (something with a topical analgesic) on the horse weeks before the drug test you're screwed.
 
confettiflyer said:
haha, bottled water is the worst. More dangerous than tap water!

But seriously, you need to drink about 120 olympic sized pools worth of tap water to get one therapeutic dose of any given drug that's found in there.
Click to expand...

Haha. Yep! Bottled water is worst! Do you guys ever notice there is a 'sell by' date on bottled water? This means that bottled water is not fresh. I would rather drink water through tap water using an awesome in-home filtration system (which I have) because it is fresh. You never know what you are getting with bottled water. :laugh:
 
Everything is a homeopathic tincture now!
 
If anything there should be MORE pharmaceuticals in the water, and route it to the faucets of folks who can't afford their meds. :D
 
Actually, it is pretty neat. I attended a toxicology conference where I got to attend a lecture by the guy the NYC hired to analyze this. Basically from what he got, it would take 1.5 million gallons of water to get the equivilant of 200 mg of ibuprofen.
 
Aznfarmerboi said:
Actually, it is pretty neat. I attended a toxicology conference where I got to attend a lecture by the guy the NYC hired to analyze this. Basically from what he got, it would take 1.5 million gallons of water to get the equivilant of 200 mg of ibuprofen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, people probably will higher doses of powdered antibiotics wafting around their local chain pharmacy.

I forgot what study had this, but there were measurable levels of medicine in the air at your local hospital, higher than ppb. Don't quote me on that, however...

And if you handle chemo meds or work with radioactive nucleotides...yeah, the last thing you'll be worrying about is trace amounts of whatever in your tap water.
 
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