Drugs In Drinking Water

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A Pharmacy In Your Water

Ibuprofen, naproxen, anti-epileptic medication, anti-anxiety drugs are something you might expect to find in a pharmacy. Now traces of those drugs may be in your water too.

Contents at a Glance

Are There Really Drugs in My Drinking Water?
Who Is Drugging The Water?
Water Treatment Systems Cannot Remove Drugs

Bottled Water And Standard Water Filters Do Not Help
How To Get Clean and Safe

Are There Really Drugs in My Drinking Water?

Traces of sedatives have been found in New York City's water and traces of six commonly used drugs were found in the Washington DC water supply. anti-seizure medication, two anti-inflammatory drugs, two kinds of antibiotics and a common disinfectant -- were found in very small concentrations in the water supply that serves more than 1 million people in the District, Arlington County, Falls Church and parts of a>.

Pharmaceuticals, along with trace amounts of caffeine, were found in the drinking water supplies of 24 of 28 U.S. metropolitan areas tested. The findings were revealed as part of the first federal research on pharmaceuticals in water supplies, and those results are detailed in an investigative report by the Associated Press. In addition, traces of triclocarban, a disinfectant used in antibacterial soaps have also been discovered.

Who Is Drugging The Water?

Every time a person consumes a medication, the body only process a portion of what has been consumed. Some fraction of every dose a person takes passes through unmetabolized and is evacuated by the body and flushed into sewage systems. Sewage treatment plants are meant to remove the more familiar kinds of pollutants, and typically do not remove pharmaceuticals from waste water as it is cleaned up and released back into the environment, eventually to find its way into other water supply systems. In some places, treated sewage water is reused directly for drinking water after several filtration processes to make it safe, although none of the systems in wide use effectively remove pharmaceuticals.

Water Treatment Systems Cannot Remove Drugs

Most wastewater and drinking water treatment systems that process the water sent to your kitchen sink are not capable of removing the pharmaceutical contaminants being discovered. While the chemicals are only found in trace amounts, the health effects of ingesting these drugs over long periods of time is unknown. Water pollution by drugs is a newly emerging, nationwide problem and nothing has been done to combat the problem.

Bottled Water And Standard Water Filters Do Not Help

A standard Brita water filter will not remove drugs from water nor will other carbon based filter such as the type that attaches to a faucet or installs in a refrigerator. Many bottled water companies also use tap water as their water source. The trade group representing bottled-water sellers told The Associated Press that they are not testing for the presence of trace drugs in their products. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) concluded that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. In fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle. Boiling water will not solve the problem either.

How To Get Clean and Safe

One of the only ways to make sure you are drinking clean, healthy water is to use a high quality reverse osmosis water filtration system such as the Tap Master. Using a home reverse osmosis water filter will guarantee a chemical-free water supply for you and your family. In the past, getting reverse osmosis water has been expensive and tends to produce a large amount of waste water during the filtration process. The Tap Master, however, can provide clean water for as little as $0.01 per gallon and is a very efficient reverse osmosis system producing up to 80% less waste water.