Amoxycillin, Prozac, Premarin, Medroxyprogesterone, Nexium, Celbrex -- it’s not just what’s at your local Walgreens, according to the Associated Press it’s actually a list of some of the pharmaceuticals that are in our drinking water.  We already know that this has had deleterious results for fish and wildlife, with a host of abnormalities showing up including lowered and damaged sperm, feminized male fish, male genital organs on female fish, impaired reproduction in mussels, reduced algae growth and kidney failure in vultures. Now scientists are asking what the health consequences will be for the people consuming this pharmacologic stew.

The drugs get into the water through a variety of means; the unabsorbed drugs are expelled through human waste and get flushed down the toilet, entering reservoirs as treated waste water, and, people discard unused pharmaceuticals in the garbage, which then seeps into the groundwater. In more rural areas, failed septic tanks are also allowing amounts of pharmaceuticals and caffeine to enter into the water system, as are steroids given to cattle that are not metabolized. With 3.7 billion prescription drug sales and another 3.3 billion in over the counter drug sales in the U.S., it’s not surprising that these substances are showing up. In addition to reservoirs, watersheds are also testing positive for these drugs, as are underground aquifers. It’s interesting what you can find out about a city based on what is in their drinking water. Philadelphians are being treated for asthma, high cholesterol and heart disease (must be those Philly Cheese Steaks), Southern Californians are big on anti-anxiety medication -- Jersey girls (and boys) like their mood stabilizers -- San Francisco has a number of post-menopausal women on hormone replacement therapy and New Orleans residents are in a lot of pain. Currently, there are no federal safety standards concerning pharmaceuticals in the water supply and the majority of US metropolitan areas don’t even conduct tests, including Houston, Chicago, New York, Boston and Miami. Not to worry, though, the aptly named Assistant EPA Administrator for Water, Benjamin Grumbles, says they are taking the concerns “very seriously”. However, their efforts are focused on detection, and not on looking at the health effects on humans. It’s enough to make this environmentalist go to bottled water. But guess what? Most of that comes from these same municipal water supplies and is not treated for pharmaceuticals, so it’s not any better for you. Nor is drinking water from other countries. Studies in Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe have detected drugs in their drinking water, too. Unsurprisingly, the pharmaceutical lobby publicly says that this is not a health risk, but a scientist from Merck acknowledged at a conference last summer that it may be a bit of a problem, according to the AP article:

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby -- director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. -- said: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms." -- CNN

While these are still trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and some scientists are skeptical that they can affect people at these low levels, recent research has shown that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. And a number of scientists point out that these agents are meant to affect the human body, unlike other pollutants, and that water is one of the few things that all people consume in large amounts on a daily basis. So where does this leave us? Since sewage treatment plants are not engineered to remove pharmaceuticals, reverse osmosis is too costly for most municipalities and chlorine treatment may make some drugs more toxic, bottled water is no better and home filtration systems don’t help where pharmaceuticals are concerned, it seems like the answer may be to stick to vodka!