After reading the Report, the first reaction is outrageous.
It is a Report from the Associated Press published in the first half of March 2008, written by a research Team that worked on it for five months. It stirred up harsh emotions and was widely quoted across the media.
The Report simply stated that a vast array of pharmaceutical drugs and hormones, a few of which quoted with their generic names, are commonly found in the tap water of at least 41 million Americans.
That is not to say that the rest of Americans drink pure water, only that their water had not been tested at that time.
Similar reports are found in the UK and Canada and could probably apply also to most of other Countries.
The findings are that tiny amounts or trace quantities of drugs made their way to treated drinking water: it is a compliment to the modern methods of chemical analysis, whose sensitivity is now pushed to unbelievable levels of accuracy.
This means that non absorbed portions of those drugs pass unchanged through the human body and are discharged in human waste.
Also unused drugs that, according to certain recommendation that are probably to be revised, were disposed of by flushing them down the toilet, increase the proportion of pharmaceuticals in raw water.
It is a commonly acknowledged fact that existing processes applied in wastewater treatment plants are unable to remove most of the pharmaceutical substances from the processed water.
The presence of antibiotics is especially disturbing, as harmful pathogens thriving in water can find ways to become resistant to them, with increasing dangers to human health.
Scientists of the appointed authorities dismiss public dread believing that in the short term the drug traces in water are not harmful to general public health.
However growing concerns are expressed among scientists that such pollution is adversely affecting wildlife and may be threatening to human health through unnoticed cumulative little changes along time.
Which effects could be felt in the long term is not known at present time. In the words of a researcher: "Right now, the ecological effects of chronic low-level exposure to many of these pharmaceuticals are unknown."
Unanimous consent is expressed that more testing is needed in different fields, but it is acknowledged that adequate funding has to be provided and that results will take decades to be obtained.
Medicines could be designed to disintegrate after time into innocuous components. More effective separation treatment should be devised to purify drinking water. And the possible effects on human health of trace amount of drugs along many decades should be assessed.
Until that time the general public should not be taken by panic, should check if the assertion of certain filter manufacturers on the capability of their products to partially remove drugs can be substantiated, and should follow the recommendations of the authorities in charge of controlling the drinking water quality.
Elia Enzo LEVI is a retired engineer.
After researching the subject of drinking water quality and of home water filters and purifiers, he set up a website where he proposes the results of his inquiry for all to consider, to reach independently their conclusions.
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