Drugs in Our Tap Water

A recent Associated Press probe found that drugs were found in the water in major centres across the US and Canada. This affected both municipal (or "city water") and private well water sources.

Contaminants ranged from pharmaceuticals and vitamins to anabolic steroids. When people take medications, most of it is absorbed by the body and used, but some inevitably passes thru the system and is excreted with the rest of the body's waste materials. In New York, heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer found in their public water supply.

Its not just human wastes we're concerned with either - a study done in an area downstream of a cattle ranch found that the water was affected here too. Cattle are often fed steroids like "trenbolone" by an ear implant that slowly administers the dosage to increase cattle size. These typically are the types of anabolic steroids used by bodybuilders to bulk up.

A German study showed that 10% of the steroids passed thru the cattle and quadrupled the levels detected in the ground water. (Side note - kind of scary to think that this already was in the water UPSTREAM too! These steroids were detected in the water even before it reached the cattle, and were found to be FOUR times higher in concentration in the water downstream.)

Although the levels of these medications were typically found in doses MUCH lower than anything you'd receive by taking the drugs directly, long-term exposure is clearly a concern. Another problem with city water arises with the addition of chlorine, typically considered a "catch-all" type of treatment for the millions and millions of gallons that flow thru these plants.

Chlorine is a cheap way to treat bacteria and helps to treat some of these problems. Unfortunately, with these medicines and chemicals, there is evidence that chlorination now makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic! It also creates "trihalomethanes" (THM's) as a byproduct of chlorine disinfection. Health Canada and the World Health Organization regards these THM's a bigger health concern than the chlorine itself.

The results clearly show that these are not only found in water supplies, but they are also not isolated - this was widespread. The studies were performed across the US, and included Canada and Europe as well. They also talked about how to protect families from them. Processes like Reverse Osmosis can remove these contaminants with their technology - the "nuts and bolts" of how this is done is beyond what I'll cover here - but suffice it to say that a typical inline or "jug style" filter setup will absolutely not remove this sort of contaminant. Reverse Osmosis selectively rejects things other than water and washes them away - out of the system and out of your drinking water supply.

True, there are pro's and con's to any technology, there is no "perfect" system, but when you are talking about your health, all options should be weighed accordingly and decisions must be made. Even bottled water isn't a guarantee. Many bottled waters are packaged as "spring" or "mineral" waters. In these cases, they are simply not treated with purification technology to remove these chemicals. We recommend a combination approach of filtration and reverse osmosis. By using these two technologies together, it is possible to prevent these chemicals from entering the home's water supply.

Basically, what it all comes down to is taking control. There is simply just no economical way that city water treatment plants can handle the volumes of water they do, and treat it to the levels that make it clean, pure water suitable for drinking, for bathing, washing dishes or cooking. When dealing with a private well water system, there is nobody to monitor the water and ensure it is safe. There are safe, easy and economical solutions to your water quality concerns.
Consult an expert - find out what's in your water and what you can do about it!

Greg Douglas, owner of Douglas Environmental Solutions
(www.douglasenviro.ca) is an Indoor Environmental Specialist, certified by NORMI and an active member of the Water Quality Association (www.wqa.org)