In the water supply: prescription drugs and human hormones
Haifa, Israel--There are a lot of nasty things in the water supply, but experts have begun to focus on something many didn't recognize as a problem a few years ago: medicines.
Drugs ingested by people or pets and then eliminated through digestion has become a significant concern, according to Carlos Dosoretz, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Technion, Israel's premier engineering university.
"Female hormones, all kinds of antibiotics, cholesterol regulators," he said. "It is a new problem because we now have the analytic instruments to detect it."
The increase in use of medicines has also fueled the problem.
It's a problem because municipal water is treated and then used in agriculture in some areas. Dosoretz is currently studying the potential effects on agriculture. Singapore has also begun to serve up highly treated wastewater through the tap for human consumption. In the future, other nations may do the same.
Getting medicines out of water, however, is difficult because of the relatively small size of the molecules. Dosoretz is working on a system that would eliminate these particles in a process similar to desalination.
- Topics:
-
Science
- Bookmark:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
As the director of Novus Medical Detox, I daily see the ravages caused by prescription drug addiction created by doctors prescribing it to their patients and then the patients either continuing to obtain it or purchasing these drugs on the internet or the street. Probably the worst of these drugs is OxyContin--legal heroin.
Pain is real. I have had to deal with it much of my life first from polio and then from two surgeries. However, there are alternatives to painkillers and they must be tried first. Let's not treat the symptoms but the cause.
Prescription drug addiction is an epidemic and we must do everything we can to stop it before it overwhelms us. Education is a must. Detox and rehab are the only solutions for people who are addicted and have decided that they must change their lives.
Steve Hayes
http://novusdetox.com