Prescription Drugs in Your Drinking Water? Find Out Here.

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water
Reporter: Shannon Kantner | WILX.COM

Germs on a water fountain are no surprise, but what about drugs in the water?

"Most meds when they are taken are not completely absorbed by the body, they pass through unchanged," said Ron Melaragni, Adminstrative Director for Sparrow Pharmacy Plus. "They get into the water supply and cause pollution, even if it's minor."

In addition, there's the commonly held belief that people are supposed to flush leftover prescriptions down the toilet. Over the years that practice has taken its toll on wildlife, including fish with three eyes and two sets of reproductive organs, according to some studies.

"There is a lot of evidence that speaks to the residuals being in the receiving waters of the United States and the local community here," said Chad Gamble, Director of Public Service for the City of Lansing. "Now they're at very, very low levels, but we want to be on the front end of that. We want to be able to protect the environment."

Gamble said most waste water treatment facilities, including Lansing's, can't remove every leftover drug particle. That makes initiatives like the third annual Medication Disposal Event at the Capitol on Tuesday especially important.

"It's a source control issue, which is inviting people to take a little bit more time out of their day to dispose of their drugs when they're done using them in a safe and efficient manner," Gamble said.
This year more than 579 pounds of unwanted or expired medication was collected, which amounts to about $1 million worth.

At this point, experts say the flushing method hasn't made drinking water dangerous for humans yet. "But if this process continues, who knows what could happen," Melaragni said. "So, it's important to do it the right way, so it doesn't get in the water supply."

If you missed the Capitol's disposal event, there is a national one happening Sept. 29. There's also a new kit on the market that will soon be on pharmacy shelves for use in the home. It's just a little black plastic bag filled with a substance when mixed with warm water, neutralizes prescriptions - up to 45 pills or 6 ounces of liquid medicine can fit in it. Once it's mixed, you seal it, and throw it in the trash.

Pharmacisits also recommend using kitty litter or coffee grounds in a container with the prescriptions and dispose of them that way.

The Ingham County Sheriff's Office recently added a bin in their lobby where anyone can drop off old pills free of charge during normal business hours.

Questions About What's in Your Water - RainSoft Has Answers

RainSoft Water Facts

Maximum Contaminant Level Goals vs. Maximum Contaminant Levels

The environment has changed a lot in the last fifty years. Manufacturing and agricultural activities, along with our growing population, add an enormous amount of potentially hazardous materials to our environment. 

As a result, the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) and others have detected more than 700 different organic compounds in treated drinking-water supplies. 

To read more about water facts and contaminants go to RainSoft Water Facts.

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Mental Health and Flouride in Water

Does fluoride in drinking water hurt your brain?

By Dr. Keith Ablow
Published August 22, 2012 | FoxNews.com

Back in 2011, the EPA reversed course and lowered the recommended maximum amount of fluoride in drinking water due to data that the levels then being allowed put kids at risk of dental fluorosis--streaking and pitting of teeth due to excessive fluoride, which also puts tooth enamel at risk.

This conclusion was a discordant note amidst all the accolades fluoride had won, starting with the discovery during the 1940s that people who lived near water supplies containing naturally occurring fluoride had fewer cavities in their teeth.   A massive push ensued, with government and industry encouraging cities and towns to add fluoride to water supplies.

Now, questions about the impact of fluoride on mental health are growing and can no longer be ignored.

A recently published Harvard study showed that children living in areas with highly fluoridated water have "significantly lower" IQ scores than those living in areas where the water has low fluoride levels.  In fact, the study analyzed the results of 27 prior investigations and found the following, among other conclusions:

* Fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development (in children) at exposures much below those that cause toxicity in adults.

* Rats exposed to (relatively low) fluoride concentrations in water showed cellular changes in the brain and increased levels of aluminum in brain tissue.

Other research studies in animals link fluoride intake to the development of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic finding in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's dementia).

And research on fluoride also has implicated it in changing the structure of the brains of fetuses, negatively impacting the behavioral/neurological assessment scores of newborns and, in animal studies, impairing memory.

This information is very important, from a psychiatric standpoint, because we have witnessed rising rates of attention deficit disorder, major depression, dementia and many other psychiatric illnesses since the 1940s, and because the United States (which fluoridates a much higher percentage of its drinking water than most countries, including European nations) has some of the highest rates of mental disorders in the world--by a wide margin.

It is not clear, of course, that fluoride is responsible wholly, or even in small measure, for these facts, but the connection is an intriguing one, especially in light of the new Harvard study.

Given the available data, I would recommend that children with learning disorders, attention deficit disorder, depression, attention-deficit disorder or other psychiatric illnesses refrain from drinking fluoridated water, and consult a dentist about the most effective way of delivering sufficient fluoride to the teeth directly, while minimizing absorption by the body as a whole--and the brain, specifically.

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Water Quality Still Important During Drought

Water Quality as important as quantity, even during drought

Arkansas Division of Agriculture | Updated: July 31, 2012

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – As Arkansas’ drought deepens, many are finding that “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” said John Pennington, Washington County extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Exceptional and severe drought in parts of Arkansas have left some communities without water and have prompted some water systems to put water-use restrictions in place as reservoirs and other waterways become more shallow by the day.

“Water users in northwestern Arkansas are faring a little better, with lake levels that are still at 90 percent full,” Pennington said. “However, the longer we go without 9-23 or so inches of soaking rainfall across the state between now and September to end the drought, a lot more may be mandated to restrict some water uses.

“It’s a strange concept, to go without water, especially so when water is essential to so many things in life as we know it and it’s a resource we take for granted,” he said. “Without enough water we can’t produce food crops, forage for grazing animals, survive, or much less water our lawns.”

However, even at time when water quantity is of prime importance, water quality still matters.

“In times like these, I can certainly understand the perspective of some our neighbors in the western U.S., who think ‘who cares about water quality, when you don’t have enough water quantity?” Pennington said.

“As the pressure mounts on our water supplies, so does the pressure to preserve its quality,” he said. “This means protecting our water as much as we can by tackling the things that can degrade our water quality, including not over-fertilizing our lawns, properly disposing of trash such as cigarette butts, and using other best management practices to prevent runoff from washing pollutants it into the waterways and reservoirs here in the Natural State.”

Pennington said that “as soon as the rains come back and begin to fill the wells and drinking reservoirs around the state, we’ll all be wanting our drinking, fishing, and swimming water to be of high quality.”

To preserve both quality and quantity, many Arkansans are implementing voluntary measures.

For example, some aren’t watering the lawn anymore because they see it as a waste of water or too costly.

Mike Daniels, Extension water quality specialist for the U of A Division of Agriculture said: “I won’t water my lawn with treated water, because treated water has is too high of a quality for that use.”

Read more...

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Wildfire Rain Runoff Can Harm Tap Water

'Chocolate Milk Shake-Like' Debris Mixture Overwhelms Treatment Plants, School Of Mines Study Says

Alan Gathright, New Media Producer | TheDenverChannel.com

GOLDEN, Colo. -- Rain runoff following a wildfire can compromise drinking water quality and overwhelm water treatment plants with a "chocolate milk shake-like mix" of debris, according to a new study by the Colorado School of Mines.

This can affect tap water that might have a smoky taste and could fail to meet federal drinking water standards, says engineering graduate students whose study suggests ways cities government can protect drinking water after a wildfire.

This is a real-time risk for communities like Colorado Springs, where the Waldo Canyon Fire has scorches 15,324 acres of hillside terrain, and the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood watch for the wildfire's "burn scar" Wednesday afternoon.

In the study, School of Mines graduate researchers worked with the city of Golden on scenarios exploring how a fire in the Golden area would adversely affect the water supply in Clear Creek, the city's source of drinking water.

"This project simulated a range of detrimental wildfire run-off conditions utilizing a surface water treatment pilot plant at the Colorado School of Mines in close collaboration with the City of Golden's drinking water treatment plant," said Professor Jörg Drewes.

The study found that rain runoff mixes leftover wildfire debris and sediment that can thwart purifying mechanisms inside downstream water treatment plants.

"While impacts of wildfires have been studied by scientists from forestry, biology and hydrology, this study is the first that combines these experiences with water treatment engineering and focuses on adverse effects on drinking water quality and appropriate response strategies," Drewes said.

Here's a link to the study: http://tinyurl.com/7lee3pa