Pharmaceutical Drug Contamination Of Waterways Threatens Life On Our Planet

It has been common knowledge for decades that our water supply and water ways are

contaminated with a host of toxins and pollutants ranging from oil and fuel additives to toxic heavy metals like Mercury, Selenium, Lead and Cadmium. Each year numerous stories are published about unacceptable or illegal levels of these various toxins and efforts to clean up or remove them, but now we seem to have a new threat. Pharmaceutical drugs are posing a serious health hazard because they are showing up in ever greater quantities in our water supply.

The President's Cancer Panel (PCP) recently released its yearly report to the President outlining the status of cancer in America. "According to the report, pharmaceutical drugs are a serious environmental pollutant, particularly in the way they continue to contaminate waterways across the country (and the world)". Of course spokespersons for the Pharmaceutical industry deny that these drugs pose any threat to human health but of course they are going to downplay the dangers so they can keep selling as much of their products as possible.

This report is quite extensive because it evaluates everything from the environmental and health impacts of drug and pesticide pollution to cell phone radiation and nuclear testing residue. Even though all municipal water supplies are treated and supposedly purified to remove toxins Pharmaceuticals are still showing up in tap water. Also over 80% of the rivers and water ways tested came up positive for Pharmaceuticals.

The EPA is tasked with regulating our exposure to toxic chemicals but no law exists regulating these Pharmaceuticals so they may excrete or dump as much as they wish and they will be breaking any laws. "In 2008, an AP investigation found that at least 46 million Americans are drinking water contaminated with trace amounts of pharmaceuticals". None of this is surprising if you consider that unused and expired drugs cannot be legally returned to the pharmacies where they were purchased. "It is also regular protocol for hospitals to flush millions of pounds of unused medications every year, a practice that contributes significantly to water contamination".

This is a serious health danger that has flown under the radar for long enough. States and the Federal Government need to enact tough legislation to control the dumping of these dangerous Pharmaceuticals and require municipalities to remove them from our drinking water before they end up in our homes.

by: Patrick Hayes

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