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Dr. Mercola
February 02 2008
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Cancer Drugs Found in Tap Water

drinking waterTraces of cancer and psychiatric drugs were found in Britain’s tap water, according to a 100-page report commissioned by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).

Despite extensive purification treatments used by water companies, traces of bleomycin, a cancer chemotherapy drug, and diazepam, a sedative, have been found in the drinking water.

Though experts say the drug levels are too low to pose a direct health risk, concerns have been raised about exposing pregnant women to the drugs, which could harm an unborn child.

A separate study by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, Oxfordshire also revealed that chemotherapy drugs are being washed into Britain’s rivers. The report estimated that an adult who drinks more than three pints of water a day would receive doses of the drugs between 300 and 30,000 times lower than recommended safety levels each week.

Still, some experts are worried.

"There is not evidence to show that drinking water treatment removes all these drugs, so while we are not wanting to alarm people, it would be foolish to assume there is no risk,” said scientist Andrew Johnson, who led the Wallingford study.

Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:
This is one unintended consequence of the drug-addicted health care paradigm plaguing the United States, and other countries as well. Dubbed “pharmaceutical pollution,” increasing numbers of drugs, and personal care products, are finding their way into drinking water supplies.

As if there weren’t already enough environmental toxins.

Drugs get deposited into your drinking water via two routes. One, through excretion. Drugs that you take, or that are given to livestock, do not necessarily become inert in your body. Some of the active components are not absorbed, and so they are deposited into sewage treatment centers that are not always looking for, or removing, prescription drugs. Drug-ridden waste from livestock also ends up polluting ground water, where it makes its way into soil, waterways and eventually our drinking water.

The second route has to do with unused prescription drugs that are flushed down the toilet or deposited into landfills by individuals, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, where they ultimately end up back in the environment.

Some of the potential concerns include:
  • Some people are now exposed to traces of multiple drugs at one time, in addition to other harmful metals and chemicals in their water
  • Many drugs in the water supply are known to have dangerous side effects when taken in normal prescription doses
  • Drugs that were only intended for external application will now be ingested and vice versa
  • Some individuals are allergic to drugs found in the water supply
  • People are exposed to combinations of drugs that should never be combined
Early last year, to try to remedy the potential harm these drugs could cause to people, plants and marine life, the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies released the following guidelines:
  • Throw most drugs in the trash after crushing them or dissolving them in water, mixing them with kitty litter, coffee grounds or other unappealing materials, and placing the mixture in a sealed plastic bag.
  • Remove and destroy any prescription labels before throwing away the containers.
  • In some states, pharmacies can take back medications. When in doubt, you should ask your pharmacist for advice.
However, while some of the new guidelines -- such as returning unused drugs to the pharmacy where you bought them, or asking a pharmacist what to do with them -- make great sense, others merely move the environmental peril from one place to another -- such as diluting medicines in water and mixing them in garbage that eventually ends up in a landfill near you anyway.

The best way to reduce environmental drug pollution is also the simplest and most obvious -- Take Control of Your Health by cutting down the number of drugs you take in the first place. The vast majority of drugs are dangerous and unnecessary band-aids that treat symptoms without ever addressing underlying health problems.

Of course, to curb the pollution problem drug use will also have to be greatly reduced among livestock and other animals in our food supply.

How to Get Clean Drinking Water

Since regular tap water may be polluted with everything from fluoride to pharmaceuticals, I recommend filtering it. I do not suggest using bottled water as an alternative because of the extreme toll it takes on the environment.

Right now, the best way you can provide pure water to your family is by using a reverse osmosis filter, which you can install in your home. Remember that you may also want to filter the water that you use to bathe with, as this can be a significant source of exposure to toxins as well.
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Community Comments ( 55 )
 		Comment on this Article
  
  
KOOSCAR
 [ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on January 16, 2008 ]
15 Points        
   
 
Novice User
VOTE for Ron Paul 2008   He is about the only person that wants to 'run' this country according to the Constitution & give all our people back their health & not let them 'wash' our liberties/lives away with flouride, chlorine & now these latest drugs added to the waters of the world!
 [ Reply ]
  
  
foxtroter_203
 [ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on January 15, 2008 ]
15 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
The damage done by prescription drugs extends beyond the individuals who takes them.  Filtration systems to recycle water often do not "catch" everything that does not belong there. 

How many other prescription drugs escape through filtration systems to cause havoc on our environment and on us.  We continue to pay and pay for untold side-effects of prescription drugs.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
 [ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
8 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
To answer your question Doc...  MANY!!!
Mercola
  
EQ
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on January 16, 2008]
21 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Yep, I've been reading about the prescription drugs that have been found in the US water supply for a few years now.  What a cocktail of poisons we've got going in our water supplies in addition to this.  We've got pesticides, fertilizers, dioxins, PCBs, arsenic, jet fuel, mercury, heavy metals, raw sewage, pathogens, radon & other radioactive substances, mining waste, deforestation sediment, chemicals from gas & oil drilling, etc., etc.  Studies are done on individual chemicals, but put them all together, and there will probably be unexpected reactions.

Geez.  I'm astounded how humans continue to buy, buy, buy, consume, consume, consume unnecessary things when it is directly causing this contamination of our water, soil, & air.  I know in this society/matrix that it's next to impossible to currently live completely sustainably, but with all this information doesn't it seem like there should be massive public action, and massive public life simplification?  Who really needs the biggest TV in the world, for example... well, who really needs a TV?

I really believe that our biggest power right now is in what we buy.  This is way more power than writing emails & picketing.  I think we could change our whole course for the better if we all simplified.  I'd love to see everyone not buy anything for 24 hours.  We would definitely see change with an action such as that.  Adbusters encourages things like this.

Am I stating this clearly (or does it sound like a confused rant)?  I hope it's clear.
Mercola
  
Birdlady
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
7 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
"Roughly 100 pharmaceuticals have now been identified in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters throughout Europe and the United States in concentrations of parts per billion to parts per trillion."
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/113-10/spheres.html
Zoloft and Paxil--See the link above.

Prozac in the water.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3545684.stm

Birth Control
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56623

Those of you who use bottled water. I don't see how these pharmaceuticals would NOT be in the bottled water. Often times it's just tap water anyway. Remember also that they drugs are in our streams, rivers, and creeks. If you are drinking from one, I would be cautious. 

I personally use the Berkey Light system . It sits on a countertop and is quite effective. Here is a pic of it. You can see how gross the top chamber is.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b46/danab1984/Berkey1.jpg
If you have fluoride then you need the post filter element they sell.  Fluoride is so small that they had to make another filter because it slows down the filtration drastically.

I am not affiliated with them in any way. I am just an extremely satisfied customer!

Mercola
  
helpingheart
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
5 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
EQ - Majority of Americans are brainwashed by TV since the day they were born!  Some of us are coming out of the coma induced by TV and turn to the internet for our information.
  
  
Aaltrude
 [ Joined on 04/07 ] [ Posted on January 15, 2008 ]
13 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
Articles like this make me so glad we live in the country and rely on rain for our water supply. We know of folk who live in urban areas and collect rain water from their roof for their water supply so living in town doesn't mean this option is closed to you.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Bridestein
 [ Joined on 12/06 ]  [ Posted on January 15, 2008]
11 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
For seventeen years now I've been drinking crick water. I filter it for sediment and haven't got sick yet so apparently deer poo and decomposing salamanders are not health hazards.
I do have a well, a pump and a tank - sitting right where I left them. One of these days I'm gonna hook them all together and see what happens.
Mercola
  
Aaltrude
 [ Joined on 04/07 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
11 Points        
   
Moderator User
  Mercola
The negative points guru is at it again. I have lost four points on this post and likewise have lost points on a number of other posts I have made. They/he/she appear to have it in for me since I made a comment in a discussion about negative points a few weeks ago when I agreed with comments about not giving negative points unless a post was rude, defammatory etc and not dishing them out just because you disagreed with a comment.
Mercola
  
DizzyIzzy1
 [ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on January 17, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Just gave you two Aaltrude.
Mercola
  
norascats
 [ Joined on 11/06 ]  [ Posted on February 2, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I live on a mountain. We have a high level of iron, but we are upstream from most pollution.

But we can't all live in the country.
  
  
Patty D
 [ Joined on 06/07 ] [ Posted on January 15, 2008 ]
11 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
But remember, our tap water is safe and all bottled water should be taxed out of existence or outright banned!  In case you don't know me...tongue definitely in cheek :)
 [ Reply ]
  
  
NewYorkGal
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on January 16, 2008 ]
10 Points        
   
 
Novice User
Their next move is to ape Monsanto: go to court to impose a drug  tax on all of us consuming their drugs free in the water!!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
T_rex
 [ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on February 2, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Ilke that idea: hold them responsible for pharmaceutical pollution.
  
  
Sharon50
 [ Joined on 01/07 ] [ Posted on February 2, 2008 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Novice User

I live in SC and I asked my pharmacist what to do with old presriptions.  He said to just flush them down the toilet!!!!  I told him that I had read that they could get into the water system and he said that when you use the toilet they go there anyway.  Well, that pretty much sums up the backwards thinking I deal with on a regulsr basis around here.  Staying healthy is a full time job with very little support in the real world.!!!

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Healthy Water Works
 [ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on February 1, 2008 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Cancer drugs found in our tap water is nothing new.  It has been happening for a long time.  In 1999 a 17 year old West Virginia high school student, Ashley Mulroy embarked on a science project taking samples of water from different sites.  She found that drugs of ALL kinds, including anitibotics were flowing in rivers, streams, ground water and even in tap water.  She received several science project awards and more importantly opened the eyes of many U.S. scientists.  While the standard use in our society of over 100,000 different synthetic chemicals has offered added convenience and productivity to our lives, it has also come at a tremendous price....drastic increases in degenerative disease.  Any chemical we use in our society will eventually wind up in our water supplies.

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
T_rex
 [ Joined on 06/07 ]  [ Posted on February 2, 2008]
4 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I googled "Ashley Mulroy" (quotes included) and came up with 328 hits. I didn't go through all of them so Ican't say they all refer to the same teenager. In any case what she found makes me even more outraged about this nefarious trend of PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTION.
Mercola