An AP story published today repeats what many of us in science, but probably few outside, already knew about our drinking water—it’s full of pharmaceuticals. Among the lovely things permeating our aquifers are hormones, pain relievers, anti-anxiety drugs, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, antibiotics….the list is long. Typical water treatment does not remove these pharmaceuticals from our drinking water, and the chlorine used to treat water may actually make some of them more harmful.
Do we need to care? Not too surprisingly, the water districts and pharmaceutical firms say no. The amounts, they tell us, are too low to matter. I thought the worst quote in the AP article, however, was from “the head of a group representating major California water suppliers, who patronizingly remarked that the public “doesn’t know how to interpret the information” and might be unduly alarmed. Hmmm. I think that’s why we teach critical thinking in school.
I for one find this trend worthy of further study, and hopefully some action. Mr. F used to serve as an elected representative of one of our local water boards, and ever since, he has been very careful about the drinking water we have in the house.
16 Comments
rcrowley · March 9, 2008 at 10:42 pm
That is quite interesting. I’m curious, how do all those chemicals and drugs infiltrate our water systems? Are bottled waters safer because they are more heavily purified? We had many awful things in our water growing up with a shallow well in a rural area (for example: e. coli, uranium, etc.), so we never drank water from the tap. But perhaps most waters contain some sort of contaminants anyway..?
Abeneven · March 10, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I think that it is wrong of them to say we should not worry, when they do not even know what the long term effects really could be! The fact that some of them could have been made more harmful by chlorine purification, is even more worrisome. What would be the best way to prevent this, if purification systems we use at home, such as Brita, won’t even remove these? I know I personally only really drink water as my beverage, so this is particularly of further interest to me. I think it will be interesting to see what this information leak to the public, causes in the future.
Laura Freberg · March 10, 2008 at 4:07 pm
rcrowley, the answer to your question is kind of gross. Of course, some people flush meds they don’t take, and that’s not something we want them to do. But the major source is that the drugs we take are not completely broken down in the body, and when they are excreted, some remain in complete form when they enter water treatment. Current water treatment is not designed to remove pharmaceuticals (although reverse osmosis takes care of most), so off the meds go into the aquifers.
rnadams · March 10, 2008 at 5:54 pm
That certainly is kind of gross. I’ve been writing a research paper over the past few days on bottled water ( and how bad it is for the environment by the way) and I’ve done a good amount of research on the difference between bottled water and tap water. Consensus from a lot of sources seems to say that bottled water isn’t any cleaner- in fact, the quality standards set by the EPA are actually stricter than the standards by the FDA for bottled water. The Natural Resources Defense center says that bottled water is tested annually, but tap water has to be tested quarterly. Also, as much as 40% of bottled water comes from the same exact source as tap water. Just something to think about it.
amandam · March 10, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Well, to know that all that can be found in water does shock me because I did not know that. I am not going to stop drinking water, but even those small amounts that are in water that we “shouldn’t worry about” do get me thinking and wondering, should we be concerned? I do agree with you and think further study and concern should go into this.
trubio · March 10, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This concerns me. Is there a certain water source that is recommended and does not have medications or hormones in it? I have recently been looking at the presence of parabens and synthetic estrogens/hormones in body lotions etc. I can’t help but think that the combination of drinking water and synthetic hormones in lotions etc. has something to do with hormonal imbalance in so many women. As someone who only drinks water, I’d like to know what kind of water I should be drinking…
Laura Freberg · March 10, 2008 at 8:26 pm
trubio–according to my reading, reverse osmosis, which you can have installed in your home for less than $20 a month, does a pretty good job of removing most gunk, including pharmaceuticals. It does waste a lot of water, though 🙁
rnadams–one thing that you might want to check for your paper is the fact that most of the bottled waters are produced by soft drink companies. They have to treat their water carefully anyway, or it will taste awful, so my guess is that it’s pretty good. The plastic bottles, as you point out, are not so good for the environment, and shouldn’t be refilled, as stuff leaches into the water from the plastic, too.
I think what we’re seeing is that we can’t take clean supplies of food, air, and water for granted. If we want clean stuff, it’s likely to be pretty expensive.
rcrowley · March 11, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Dr. Freberg- You’re right, that is really gross. I just read an article from thedailygreen.com about solutions to this problem, it has some interesting points and information. Here is the URL:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/pharmaceuticals-drinking-water-47031110?src=rss
bblaine · March 11, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Hearing this information made me stop and think before I had a glass of water today from my sink. However, if I have been drinking the tap water here in SLO for 3 years now, why should I stop now? The person that brought up the EPA v. FDA guidelines was shocking to me. Also, It is hard to believe that tap water is just as good as bottled water because one can clearly taste a cleaner or more purified water when drinking bottled water.
stclark · March 12, 2008 at 11:00 am
Well this certainly goes a long way to explaining why I feel so happy, stable, unanxious, and fortified against bacteria living here in San Luis Obispo where I finally feel safe drinking the tap water. (Believe me, compared to that of Riverside, this tap water rocks!) Frankly, I don’t know what you people are worried about! Think about it, we are getting FREE drugs! Normally people have to pay out the nose for pharmaceuticals, and we get them by virtue of keeping hydrated. I don’t even have to go to a shrink to get xanax anymore, I can turn on my faucet. Boy I feel bad for all those people drinking bottled water. In fact, I’m thinking maybe I should bottle a bunch of SLO water and take it with me to Thailand this spring for the mild antibiotic effects! I’ve been joking with friends for years about spiking certain areas’ public water systems with birth control, but apparently its already happening. I wonder if I can stop using mine now and just drink more water, hmmm…… 🙂
stclark · March 12, 2008 at 11:04 am
So I’m totally being toungue in cheek here, this IS troublesome. Maybe we should put this to the scientific and engineering community to look into. We need better water processing options, senior project anyone?
bldrysdale · March 12, 2008 at 11:47 am
I agree with Bblaine. I too drink only tap water and after hearing all of this it is troubling, but since it seems that bottled water is the same, why should I change? I don’t know if the drugs in the water are affecting people, and hopefully they aren’t, but someone should do a study soon to find out if and how much we are affected.
ccallag · March 12, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Tap water is so gross! This data shows just how much junk is in it. Do water companies really filter out all they possibly could..i don’t think so. And the data that said the chlorine they put in the water could actually make the drugs more harmful! That is so scary! I don’t know about you but i would much rather not ingest those harmful chemicals.
kenmorrison · March 13, 2008 at 12:58 pm
No wonder I feel so intoxicated and euphoric after drinking a lot of water, j/k, but seriously. It seems like they are trying to create addicts out of us all; they even want us to become addicted to water. I am having a hard time deciding what to drink anymore; I stopped drinking soda because all the sugar, juice drinks are usually not made from real fruits, and now the water contains pharmaceuticals. Is there anything that we can drink that is not harmful?
rwest · March 14, 2008 at 10:06 am
I agree with kenmorrison, don’t drink soda, fruit juice has to much sugar, water has drugs in it. What can we drink? I did look into the reverse osmosis treatments from our local Culligan and for twenty plus dollars a month me and my girlfriend can drink clean water. But realizing the cost of living in SLO this is just another thing to add onto the pile of bills and rent. I need to quit school and get a few more jobs.
Swedish55 · March 14, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I think that is gross and disturbing to know what is in our water, yet as busy students most likely studying other things, what are we to do about it? Also, hearing that tap water is no better if not worse then bottled water is scary, especially thinking about what people pay for it. I heard that buying spring water is better then buying just purified water. I know it’s bad for the environment to be buying plastic bottled water all the time, but I find the tap water here to taste so much like chlorine I can’t stand drinking it alone. I will use it for tea, and any other purpose that will cover some of the taste. And isn’t too much chlorine in your system a bad thing also?
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