By Shaaban Fundi
pharmaceuticals in drinking water
In one of the days during the training, we went to see a membrane bioreactor (MBR) sewage treatment plant. We talked about the advantages of an MBR over traditional sewage treatment plants. In the middle of this discussion, a person asked about pharmaceuticals? Does MBR sewage treatment process remove pharmaceuticals in the treated water? I am not exactly sure what the question was, but it was along those lines.
That question actually made me think twice about where do the medication (pills, injections, topical creams, etc) that millions and millions of people are taking everyday go? We know for a fact that what goes in must come out. It is a small portion of the medication we take that is actually metabolized– the rest is released to the environment through our urine, fecal matters and in so many other ways. But, where do these by-products go to after we flush the toilets and/or when dumped in landfills after they expire?
Pharmaceuticals are the biggest incoming environmental and health challenge of our time. There are millions and millions of people taking a variety of medication each single day. All these pharmaceuticals finally end up in our water ways. Most of these pharmaceuticals have long half-lives and also very few to zero natural microbes are able to metabolize them. Hence, they stay in the environment longer increasing the likelihood that their concentration will significantly increase in our water supply systems the next few years.
The effect to human and other animals is not very well documented as of yet. Some studies done on fish have shown negative effect to fish population exposed to elevated levels of pharmaceuticals in rivers, streams and lakes. Some male fish have actually turned into female when their habitats are exposed to high levels of pharmaceuticals for long duration. What these low concentrations of pharmaceuticals found in drinking water doing to the human body is currently a mystery.
Admittedly, the pharmaceuticals are in minute concentrations right now but since none of the water treatment plants can remove them from water–we are running the risk of their concentration increasing over the next few years.
In America right now there are no legislations to deal with pharmaceuticals in drinking water or the water that goes into the streams, rivers, and lakes. At the same time, trace amount of pharmaceuticals have already been recorded in many urban and suburban water supply systems. What is America going to do with this impending health and environmental problem?
I do not know about you, but I would rather not drink none-prescribed pills in the water I drink!!!!
With all the hormones, antidepressants, and other different types of medications in the drinking water supplies; no wonder–people can no-longer stand each- other.
And you are wrong even if you drink bottled water–you are still taking in pills!
Great post, you have pointed out some superb details, I will tell my friends that this is a very informative blog thanks
Thanks for the compliment.
The article was pretty chill i guess. Know that all these hormonal pills could quite possibly be in the water I am currently drinking…..scares me. I think we should invest money in research to find a proper filtration system to keep our everyday water fresh. But on a serious note i like starwars…….(this explains the light saber noises)
I thought this article was very fascinating to know that I’ve been drinking non-perscribed pills, Now I believe I’m going to be more conscious about the water I drink and the medications I take whenever I am sick.
This article was pretty interesting and it was radical. When I was reading the article it scared me about the hormonal, antidepressant, and other types of medication in the drinking water. Also there are no legislations to deal with pharmaceuticals in the drinking water and or the water that flows into the streams, rivers and lakes. The solution about this problem is drink filter water and or drink bottle water.
I live in a county with a state of the art water treatment Plant. I know because I’ve toured it. They use less harmful chemicals and have test labs. America needs to spend more tax money on the country’s health instead of things like going to war. If all county’s had state of the art water treatment plants instead of operating on technology from the 60′s, we would have a lot less contamination problems.
Reading this article was very informative ! I did not know that pills, creams, and all the everyday medicines people take would be in our drinking water, that’s pretty crazy. Does it still work if you have a water purifier like a brita? Very interesting article.
Like the others above have said, this article is very informative. It is almost completely disturbing that America has not yet figured out a way to filter out the pharmaceuticals in our water supply. If the fish are already turning from male to female, then just imagine what will happen to human males and females in the future! I do hope that sometime in the near future, the government appoints someone that is highly qualified to handle this problem…..
I dont drink water as much as i should, but little did i know that when i do, it could be containing medicine. I would think that in a world as advanced as ours, they would have a system that cleaned our drinking water to top quality, but as guess we cant have everything?
This article make me think twice about our drinking water. It is so wierd to me that we could be drinking water with everyday medication in it. I believe that our country needs to invest more money on our health such as having a better filtration system so we can have fresh water for our everyday life.
The goverment needs to put more of our tax$$ towards water filtration plants. No one wants to drink unhealthy water.
ok….that scared me…I was just drinking water when I read this and I stoped drinking it…. The govt should really work on this issue because it is about the safety and health of the people. If some male fish turned into female fish, what will happen to human kind in some years? are the men going to turn in women? or vice versa? we are asking why so many people are having cancers those days. I’m sure this is a cause of some cancers. we should really find some solutions before it get worse. The govt should find something to filtre all those medicines in the water we drink.It is sad to conlude that even with this information we will still drink the water.We cant just stop, because it contributes to life. The only think we can do is to resolve the problem.
This article its really interting because you really point out something good about medicine and water. and i’m going to more careful of what i drink and take. (:
this article got me thinking abot water.. is the water really that bad .. how could the govt let us drink it .. i mean wouldnt the water eventually kill us little by little.. or just turn our genders aroud like that fish.
this subject is completely new to me. I was not aware that these prescription medicines are in our water supply. I guess now i will look at drinking water in a different way.
I knew there had lots of virus and medications in water so I usually drink the boil water. Although there still have medications in the water, it still get less virus than non-boil water.
I always ask myself is the water we drink is safe. What if over the years we can change gender like the fish. Very intersting topic.
I am scared to drink water now……..just kidding, but I never knew about this pharmesutical water. I feel very informed. I will never look at water the same ever again.
This article was highly informative. knowing that are water is tainted with pills makes me feel the need to not want to drink water.
I have learned a great deal of information about the water I through this article. I wont stop drinking water but I will slow up on it. Knowing that the water is tainted with pills and other things make me feel uneasy but atleast i know now.
This artcle has brought my attention to the fact that pharmaceuticals are in our water. That makes me wonder if the water filters people buy,filter out these medications…
Intresting article makes me kind of not want to drink water
It intrigues me to know what could possibly be in the drinking water. Although the process to remove all of the medications from water may not be possible, im sure theres a way to clean up the water a little. In the future many people could become sick with the increasing mwdications levels of water. We should fix the problem.
It intrigues me to know the effects of medication on our water supply. The rising levels could potential make us all sick one day. In the immediate future i think we should try to limit the levels of medication in our water supply. this problem should be adressed soon.
Wow! I may never see water the same way again. And i drink water all the time. But this is a very good article.
Wow,this is great. Never knew I was drinking pills while drinking water. More alert on this now.
This is something that I believe is extremely serious, this is a very dangerous health risking issue.The government should definitely invest in the cost for research. The fact that animals are changing gender should be a good enough reason.
It is interesting to know that there are pills in the water we drink. It could lead to the way we as people drink and see water. As much as water claims to be “pure” there is always something there.
There is no question to really answer, but this article doesn’t surprise me one bit. My mother doesn’t allow me to take any kind of pharmaceutical drugs and prescriptions because she is all about health and wellness. So to conclude i could do nothing but to agree with my mother and the facts of this article. Our generation and government is very blinded by the harmful things they advise to us.
I had no clue about this. I am shocked by this. I have to be careful now on what I drink. Thanks for the information, If it wasn’t for this I would have never known.
I think that it is intresting to know that the water we drink can also have different medications in it as well. I think that it is important for it to be a different water system. one for drinking and one for sewage but the two should never mix.
My mom always said that I shouldn’t drink tap water and stuff and I’ve never believed it but after reading this article and figuring out all the hormones, antidepressants, medications in the water I’m scared to drink it. The purest thing in the earth that’s suppose to be water is now getting infected by people. Wow this is why I stick to coke
I’ve learned a lot of good information about the water once i read this. I will slow up on drinking water, but not stop completely of course. Now that I know that the water is laced with pills and other things make me insecure about it, but at least I know now for future reference.
thats is a really scary thought that we dont need to worry about a nut case poisoning the water supply but knowing that by taking an aspirin and and going to the bathroom im doing it myself. I hope that theres some technological break through in the next few years maybe a synthetic enzyme or possibly nano bot taking off.
really good post
Its interesting and scary to find out that there are medications poisioning our water supply and having an affect on populations of fish and kind of sad that america isnt doing anything about it.
This is very intresting! Now i wonder if the water i drink is a healthy? Yeah probably not. This made me think about drinking out of faucets, buying water, or even the one in my house from my filter. I mean it goes through nasty pipes that have been there and ever sice i lived here no pipes have been renewed and now theirs medication in water? i like your perspective and the way you observed this.
Our generation and government is very blinded by the harmful things they advise to us. Without FDA approved drugs our society will die off very quickly due to the harsh side affects.
I would have never thought that I could in some way be taking medicine while just drinking water. This could be very great for our futures. We could just drink water from the sewage plant and be healthier. But it is probably not as effective as actually taking the medications. If they could figure out how to get the full effect of the medications through the sewage water than that could be a great breakthrough for science.
this scared me a little but eh i’m still alive what doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger , back to drinking bottled water.
This article gives me more detail into what I already knew was a serious situation. I was always aware that it wasn’t safe to drink tap water and had been careful before, but now I know that it would be better to drink purified water.
This article is beneficial to our society to let the population know be careful what you drink. We are paying the government our tax dollors to ensure that we have clean tap water. What if people can’t afford bottled water all the time? This is unfair to us. Instead of paying the government more money out of our paychecks to ensure our water is clean, the government should be more careful about what they are putting into our tap water. This is unfair to the poeple of this country to not have clean tap water.
This is a fantastic article which associates with what really is in our drinking water. I had no idea until this day that medicine and many other chemicals still flow through purified water. I was never aware that tap water could carry these sort of things. I think that it’s very unsafe and just plain wrong.I feel that we should find a way to solve this problem. .After reading this article I’m going to try to be more careful of the water I drink.
This was a real eye opener I had no idea that this was in our water. Nothing is 100% safe but I didn’t think that applied to water. It makes me wonder in a couple years what our water ways will be like. Hopefully America observes this as a increasing problem and tries to prevent it from getting worse.
This article really makes you think about what you are drinking when you just get a glass of tap water. I noticed that there is a taste difference between tap and bottled or spring water and I may have figured out why now. All of the substances and medicines that end up in our water will begin to cause problems in the long run.
Very interesting article. got me thining of the water we drink every day
didnt know dat da tap water had all of that , interesting. {:
I did not know this until now. I will think carefully about what im drinking.
This article on pharmaceuticals in drinking water was quite interesting. It a real eye opener because I never thought about what’s in the water we drink, and I wish there was other solutions so we can have purified water.
This is a very interesting article. I never thought of the possibility that all of that could be in the water we drink. I wonder if the water we drink is safe. From now on, I`m going to be more careful. More people should know about this.
This article has made me think about all the pharmaceuticals I have flushed ,I did not know that they tested this on fish and they changed sex trait I can only imagine what this water is doing to humans.
Its crazy how People Are just Now noticing This Bad Situation. But at the Same Time Nothing has happened to the Human bodies yet And This Has been going On For Some years
Wow, I never though that by drinking water I could be putting a small dosage of a pill into my body. I do wonder how this affects the human body, and if there is a way to stop these pills from entering the drinking water. Also I saw the article said it could harm fish, well if we ate the fish could it harm us also? I loved this article and it definately made me more aware of the water I drink!
People who drink pills, should think it two times when they drink them because they are contaminating our environment and our fresh water ways. It is sad to see how the fishes are being affected by this chemical pills. It is unfortunate how this pills can change the genders of the fishes. In my opinion , we need to put a limit to the number of pills that pharmacies sell daily. By limitating the number of pills sold, we can reduce alot of the contamination of this chemicals that at the end damage our natural resources. I also think that now is the right time to tell our government of this things because as time passes, our oceans will get more contaminated and this will bring us seriously diseases.I think that our government needs to work harder on the filtration systems because is our health and lifes that are in danger. Great article Mister Fundi and thanks for alerting us of the danger that this pills bring to our environment and us.
After reading this article I never really thought about what happens when different medications are released into the environment through our natural human processes. This actually kind of worries me, and raises alot of questions like are these chemicals being released into he environment? And can it effect us? I think this is very interesting and shows how little things like this that are over looked are in fact a major factor
Influencing our environment and health.
Before i read this article, i had no idea about the pharmaceuticals in the water. I never really thought about where pharmaceuticals went after they are used. This article really does make me think about the water we use and drink. It it really safe to drink water with these pharmaceuticals in it. Studies has shown that some male fishes have turned into female after being exposed to pharmaceuticals for a long period of time. Would they have the same effect on humans too? I think that we should invest money to research and find a way to safely get rid of these pharmaceuticals. This investment would help keep the animals in the environment and give humans clean drinking water.
Very interesting article, I never knew any of this, and it is making me think about the water we drink!!!
What are your thoughts?
After reading this article I never really thought about what happens when medications are put out into the environment. This kind of scares me, and raises questions like why are these chemicals being released? can it cause health problems? Will this effect future generations? I think this is some crazy stuff and shows how little things are looked over and can cause serious issues for everyone.
What should be done Mr. Dylan?
This really made me thing and get worried. How can we help to not have this problem that much? Also how dangerous is this and how can we prevent them? I really don’t want to drink water with all this contamination.
They should make a treatment plant to take out that stuff if it’s actually that big of a problem to us. Also, why make pills that wouldn’t fully break down in your body? Wouldn’t that be extra money for pharmaceutical companies if they were paying to make pills and part of it was wasted because it exited the body as waste before it was fully broken down?
I already knew this stuff but i still think that bottled water is better than water hose……………………
I already knew this stuff but i still think that bottled water is better than water hose…………..
Well! I am appalled! I never would’ve thought that water could end up being so dangerous! I mean, i hardly drink it anyways… But still, when I do from here on out, i might think twice about it. I can’t believe fish changed gender because of this! Could that mean that in many years to come, humans could possibly have their genders swapped because of this non-sense?? Jeez oh man…
#speechless
This was good article and very interesting. I never really thought about how medication could affect our water. This defiantly gives you something to think about.
“Some male fish have actually turned into female fish…” lmao fa real?! haha uhm other than that piece of information this article is pretty interesting. however i don’t see how we can do anything about it since the way its even being exposed is through our waste. we would either hav to make it so that our ‘BODILY WASTES” dont end up in the streams and lakes and stuff or we would just not poo and pee (which we all know is kinda far fetched). this article just makes me paranoid actually,kinda like knowing that the milk from a cow is actually mixed with puss from their utters because the machines that milk them make them “sore” lol uuuuuh and the factories dont know how to seperate the puss from the actual milk so think about what your drinking guys :/ or not which ever make you happy
Do some research on the topic. Use google scholar to find articles that discuss this issue in details. You will be happy you opened up your thinking through your new understanding of this and other issues.
I think this article is extremely insightful. Never would I have thought that the water that I was drinking contained fragments of other people’s medication. I feel that the government should get on this immediately. Knowing the government they are most likely aware of this problem but are too lazy and/or too cheap to deal with it. I think this could possibly be one of the sources for cancer (far stretch). If a person ingests even small amounts of different unknown medications over several years, something has to happen to their body. If these fragments of medication can cause a fish to switch genders, it can most definitely cause cancerous tumors to form.
Can we prevent pharmaceuticals from being in our water if we boil it or us a purification system at home? This just shows you that we can know for sure exactly what it is that we are consuming.
This article was fascinating! Because of sports, I drink water all day everyday, so its nice to know what I am consuming, but I never thought tha pharmesuticals would be a part of the water I drink. I’m definately looking into this more, and in the meantime buying purified water instead of drinking tap.
Trippi*
Wow, I have never looked at water in such a way before. I know that water is polluted, but I never thought that the actual water we drank included pharmesutical drugs. Many people drink water to live a healthier lifestyle, but by drinking pharmesutical induced water, how can that benefit you? I drink water 24/7, so I’ll definetly be looking into this, and drinking purified water.
This article is very insightful, because I never would have thought that the pharmaceuticals many people take everyday go into our water. Since I drink water daily this is not good because an abundance of people take pills for the smallest things they feel in their body. Now that I know this I might start drinking purified water also.
Reading this article was sooo weird and crazy. I had no idea that that pills we take is in our water. it scares me actually. it worries me because i drink water everyday. This encourages me to do more research into this , or investigate.
This article was very informative, I had the slightest idea that the pharmaceuticals that we all take throughout our lifetime is going into the water we drink everyday. I drink tons of water so its good that I use a purifier. You’d honestly think that water would be the last thing to worry about nowadays. In the future I’ll be sure to more aware of the medication I in take and the water I drink.
This article has a lot of good information. I got to know that all these hormonal pills could quite possibly be in the water. Me and my family drink only purified water we don’t drink from the tank or something like that. Tainted water can be dangerous for our health. Thank you for the information.