According to a study released by the Mayo Clinic earlier this year, nearly 70 percent of Americans take some sort of prescription drug. This is up from 48 percent just a few years ago in 2007-2008. As it turns out, the increased popularity of prescription drugs is having an effect on our nation’s water quality. Today we’re going to talk about how pharmaceutical drugs get into our drinking water and the potential effects it could have on our health.
How do pharmaceutical drugs get in our drinking water?
Pharmaceutical drugs get into our drinking water in one of two ways. Many people flush their old and unused pharmaceuticals down their toilets and sinks, which allows the drugs to end up in our water supplies. In addition, trace amounts of pharmaceuticals end up in our urine, which adds the drugs to wastewater and eventually back to our water supplies.
Are pharmaceutical drugs monitored in our drinking water?
There are currently no regulations that require water treatment plants to test for or monitor the levels of pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. We do know, however, that these drugs are making it past our treatment plants and into the water in our homes.
According to a study that will be published next month by the EPA, more than half of the nation’s water supplies that were sampled tested positive for oxycodone, high-blood pressure medications, over-the-counter drugs (Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc.) and more.
What are the health effects of consuming pharmaceuticals in drinking water?
It is currently unclear how pharmaceuticals in drinking water affect our health. However, it is a growing concern among scientists and health officials. What we do know is that hormones work at very low concentrations in the human body, which suggests that the drugs can affect our bodies even though they show up in low concentrations in our water. In addition, the increase of pharmaceuticals in water has been affecting the hormones and reproductive process of the fish in our water supplies.
If you’re concerned about the health effects of pharmaceuticals in your water, your best defense is to install a whole house water filtration system or a point-of-use reverse osmosis system (http://ncwaterconsultants.com/water-treatment-blog/how-does-a-reverse-osmosis-water-filter-work/). Both of these residential water treatment systems will remove the traces of pharmaceuticals from the water you consume in your home.
If you have any questions about pharmaceuticals in drinking water, or if you’d like a water treatment system serviced or installed in your home, contact North Carolina Water Consultants. We install Hague water filtrations systems in North and South Carolina, including towns