Today the Cape Cod Times reports that the disposal of medicine is a hotly debated issue for the local board of health in Cape Cod, Massacusetts. When a health official revealed that Cape Cod Hospital regularly flushes narcotics down the drain (in accordance with federal rules), Yarmouth Board of Health member William Snowden said, “You’ve got to stop that, please! It’s unacceptable!”

Sometimes referred to as “emerging contaminants” in water, pharmaceuticals and personal care products have people concerned across the country, especially in communities like Cape Cod, where all drinking water comes from a single source and is highly sensitive to contamination. Many of these contaminants act as endocrine disruptors (even is small amounts), damaging the balance of hormones in humans as well as animals.

When drugs and personal care products are flushed down the toilet, they end up in our water supply – and water treatment facilities are not equipped to remove these contaminants. Chronic exposure to these contaminants over time can have adverse effects. For example, male fish in the Potamac River are beginning to develop eggs in their testes due to endocrine disruptors in the water. In humans, endocrine disruptors may cause developmental defects and fertility problems.

Officials are currently discussing alternative ways of disposing of dangerous medications. In the meantime, however, hospitals continue to flush drugs down the drain. You can remove endorcrine disruptors from your water with home water filters.

Isn’t it bad enough that our drinking water is polluted with fluoride, chlorine, industrial chemicals, and pesticides? Appartently not!

Several recent studies have found pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water – from antipsychotics to sex hormones. An Associated Press investigation found pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million people in the United States.

When people take drugs, some of the pharmaceuticals pass through their body and exit in urine, which is flushed down the toilet. This water is treated before it enters rivers and lakes, and it’s treated again before it becomes drinking water, but water treatment plants do not remove all pharmaceuticals.

EPA scientist Christian Daughton explained, “People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that’s not the case.”

Then there’s the problem of hospitals and other health care facilities that flush old medicine down the toilet, as if the toilet makes the drugs magically disappear. It’s not magical, folks. It’s just a crapper.

Bovine drugs – such as the antibiotics given to cows – also end up in drinking water supplies. (Cows have to pee, too!)

According to the EPA, sewage treatment systems are simply not engineered to remove pharmaceutical drugs. In fact, the highest concentration of pharmaceuticals in drinking water tends to be near sewage treatment plans (suggesting that most of the drugs enter water from human waste).

Of course, the level of exposure to drugs in drinking water is low, but over the years, it can add up to cause harm. For instance, sex hormones can interfere with reproduction and development, and psyciatric medications can alter behavior, even at a low levels of chronic exposure. And antibiotics in the water only contribute to the development of more “super bugs.”

“These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations,” explains Dr. John Sumpter of Brunel University. “That’s what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects.”

An under sink reverse osmosis water purifier is the best way to eliminate pharmaceuticals from your water.

USA Today reports that hospitals and other healthcare facilities flush 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals each year – and those drugs end up in America’s drinking water.

Even more pharmaceuticals end up into the water supply after unmetabolized medicine is excreted and then flushed.

At least 46 million Americans are drinking water contaminated by pharmaceuticals.

Even in extremely diluted concentrations, many pharmaceutical residues affect the normal development of human cells. Pharmaceutical pollution also harms fish, frogs, and other aquatic species.

Scientists in Davis County, UT linked drug dumping to the spread of antibiotic resistant germs as well as genetic mutations that may promote cancer.

The EPA is looking at ways to regulate the amount of pharmaceutical waste released into waterways.

For now, it’s up to you to rid your drinking water of dangerous drugs.

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