Drugs in your drinking water

Like it or not, chances are good you are getting some

AMERICA’S WATER WOES

The Associated Press recently released a report showing drinking water supplies for at least 41 million Americans were contaminated with “a vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones.”  Almost immediately I was getting calls and emails from people asking if I was aware of this, where it coming from and what the solutions were.

I have been aware of it for quite sometime and in fact have referred to it in a few written pieces…but it is amazing the differing reaction between a trade publication that reaches 20 to 30 thousand contractors and the Sunday newspapers that reaches those 41 million victims.   

So where is it coming from?  The first source is us; we have become a nation of people that take drugs for everything from acne to [herpes] zoster and to be honest, many of these conditions I have never even knew I had (but hey, I saw it on TV so I must have it).  

When you take drugs your body absorbs some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet where it goes to a treatment plant where it is supposed to be cleaned before being discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes; however the main goal of a treatment plant is to remove parasites and viruses, not pharmaceuticals.  Then that tainted water is piped back out to the neighborhood and like it or not, everyone is getting a dose of those drugs. 

Of course some of this massive drug consumption is the result of medical progress because researchers have found treatments for more of what ails us, but there is something else that gets credit; profits. 

The manufacturing of pharmaceuticals is the most profitable industry in this country, and they got that distinction by selling us drugs…lots of drugs.  The massive profits they generate allow them to aggressively market their products.  A few years back you would see the occasional ad for headaches or heartburn.  With today’s ads we even have children asking what erectile dysfunction is.      

And after they convince you that you need their products they can use their power to write the laws that control where you buy them (like in the U.S. only, not in places like Canada or Mexico where they are cheaper) and how much you will pay for them.  In fact according to David Walker, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Medicare law (written by the pharmaceutical companies and pushed through congress in the middle of the night with the help of over 100 pharmaceutical lobbyists on the floor of congress) signed into effect in 2003 will contribute to the bankruptcy of the American government (which means us) in the coming years.  But hey, corporate profits are what counts, right?            

Note-People often blame greedy doctors, but doctors don’t make money from the sale of those drugs because they only prescribe them, they don’t sell them.  True there have been a few caught getting kickbacks for prescribing certain [drugs] but the truth is most doctors are too busy doctoring to learn about the latest and greatest drugs coming out so they depend on those sales reps to bring them up to speed.  And these reps are not the passive types that let the doctor ask what is new; rather they push the latest and greatest miracle cure. 

Of course now it is coming out that some of these drugs are not necessary, do more harm than good, and/or can be replaced by natural supplements, but where are the profits in that. 

However our love of medicating ourselves is not the only source for these products; we are also getting them from our food.  Livestock farmers, particularly the large commercial operations have learned a few tricks to increase their profits as well.  They realize the bigger a cow, pig or chicken is the more money they can get for them, so they feed these animals steroids to bulk the up.  As an added bonus they grow faster (the life cycle of livestock is measured in days). 

But they have found another solution to a potential problem; when animals get sick it is expensive and time consuming to nurse them back to health, so they feed them antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick.  Now those animals are a drug store walking to the butcher shop.  

And guess where these farmers buy these steroids and antibiotics…from the pharmaceutical companies.  Gee, what a shock.   

Now as we consume our daily hamburgers, steaks, chops and McNuggets we are also consuming the steroids and antibiotics those animals were fed.  But wait, there’s more! 

The sludge generated by sewage treatment facilities, while high in pharmaceuticals is also high in nutrients, so they sell it to crop farmers as cheap fertilizer.  Now our vegetables and grain products are getting soaked with this chemical cocktail.   

Researchers have already found fish in many of our lakes/rivers are morphing into both sexes, but if you want to see how this deluge of drugs is affecting us just look at our children; I have seen 12 year old girls that could pass for collage students while some of the high school boys are the size of Hulk Hogan.  And we are becoming resistant to antibiotics to boot. 

TIME TO WAKE-UP PEOPLE 

When someone writes an article about a problem it is their responsibility to offer solutions; here are a few of my suggested fixes. 

Americans can stop taking so many drugs, but I don’t see that happening.  With the injuries I have acquired over the years even I would be hard pressed to give up those pain meds. 

We all could refuse to buy meats raised with steroids/antibiotics and insist crop farmers no longer use sewage sludge for fertilizer.  The problem is farmers, like most American businesses are no longer content making normal profits.  No, they need to post record profits.  And when they miss those huge projections they are going to feel cheated so the price of food will go up, and I don’t think Americans are going to like it when their cheeseburger jumps a dime.

You could start building and retrofitting existing sewage treatment facilities to remove these pharmaceuticals but you would be looking at a price tag in the trillions which means higher taxes and not many are going to relish another tax hike.

Better yet, we could stop building and expanding sewage treatment facilities and start putting more homes on septic systems.  Many people would think this would be a step backwards but the truth is today’s septic systems will treat wastewater better than a multimillion dollar facility at a fraction of the cost and will do a far better job of removing these contaminates. 

A company called Earth Watch, www.earthangel.com has even developed a modular type system that can be installed in a basement or utility room and is so effective that the discharge can be used for irrigation and water recycling; toilets, washing machines, etc.  What this means is a home could cut its fresh water use down to a few gallons per day, and as with many of the negative issues facing our country today, chances are good you haven’t heard that our nation’s water supplies are dwindling to critical levels.         

This system can be sized to meet the needs of industrial applications like hospitals and nursing homes which are major sources of pharmaceuticals and can even be retrofitted to homes on city sewers to clean up the wastewater before it hits the treatment plant.  That may not seem like a wise plan but most of the municipal facilities in this country today are dangerously outdated and to bring them up to speed is going to mean a huge increase in taxes and user fees.  As a homeowner you can either spend 20 to 60+ thousand dollars to upgrade/build new facilities, or drop 3 to 5 thousand to do your own treatment which would save us trillions in tax dollars. 

The biggest opponent to this idea will be the engineering firms that rake-in billions doing these municipal projects.  They will not appreciate losing those huge paydays and are going to tell you it wouldn’t work, so consider the source when someone tells you it is a stupid idea. 

DON’T EXPECT OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO HANDLE THIS ONE RIGHT

In the 1970’s the Arab nations realized they literally had us over a barrel and started squeezing.  President Jimmy Carter knew we had to get off our dependence on foreign oil (for environmental reasons as well) and he offered tax breaks as an incentive for us to come up with alternative forms of energy.  All across the country people were experimenting with wind, solar and other technologies. 

Then along came Ronald Reagan with the message to stop worrying about oil, we have plenty.  And if we need more we will just have our friends at Exxon punch a few more holes.  At the same time he dropped those tax incentives and Americans stopped searching for solutions. 

Today that foolish advice has us paying record prices at the pump and global warming is an issue that we can no longer ignore.  The tragedy is, Americans are some of the greatest innovators in the world and in the 25 years we were convinced to ignore the obvious we would have developed the solutions…instead we are playing catch-up and it is costing us dearly.  

In their usual fashion politicians will tell us we don’t have to worry about our water supplies, but this is a problem and we need to start dealing with it now.  Don’t wait until steroid consumption has our children shaving in the morning before heading off to kindergarten and dying at the age of 12 from an infection because they have become resistant to antibiotics.