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Drugs in the water?


I thought this was interesting.

A study conducted by Université de Montréal researchers on downstream and upstream water from the Montreal wastewater treatment plant has revealed the presence of chemotherapy products and certain hypertension and cholesterol medications.

So the drugs that people are scoffing are getting pee'd out and then are entering the water supply. We now have fish swimming round in a soup of medication.

If you have read elsewhere on this blog there are major health risks associated with statins. Yet with the widespread use of these drugs it seems that we might be getting to a point when they are hard to avoid.



Read more here: Hypertension and cholesterol medications present in water released into the St. Lawrence River
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Comments

Craig B. said…
OH, that's just fucking lovely. Expected, but still.
January 26, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Anonymous said…
Gross. Gross. Gross. Between the contamination in the soil that most of our food is growing in and the antibiotics and other drugs leaching into our water it does really seem impossible to avoid.

jh
bodaweightloss
January 27, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Muse said…
Chris,

I wouldn't even consider drinking or cooking with tap water where I live. Here is an excerpt from our local paper:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/23/1m23reclaim23151-wastewater-tap-water/?zIndex=41716

Escondido is considering reclaiming wastewater for use as drinking water to augment its water supply.
In addition, the inland city stands to save hundreds of millions of dollars by avoiding upgrades to its sewage treatment plant and an ocean outfall pipe if the plan succeeds.
Escondido is paying a consultant $50,000 to conduct a feasibility study. It is following the Helix Water District which serves parts of East County, and the city of San Diego in considering the contentious idea, sometimes derided as “toilet to tap.”

*******
This is just plain GROSS! We use a home water distiller. The leftover contaminants that remain in the distiller (a small 3.8 L distiller) are putrid now -- imagine what it will be like if we have to start drinking recycled sewage.

Theresa
January 27, 2009 at 4:34 PM
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