Saturday, 1 October 2011

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water - By What Means Do These Drugs End Up in Drinking Water?

When we turn on the tap in our kitchens the last thing we expect to find is medicine capsules or pills floating in the water that pours out. We would probably look over our shoulder looking for the hidden camera thinking someone we know had set us up for some kind of reality TV show. Bizarre as all this sounds prescription drugs in the drinking water is a fact the world over. And if we can find drugs in the water coming out our taps then these are certainly in other bodies of water including rivers.

One example that helps us see and hopefully accept this is research carried out in a place called Petancheru near Hyderabad in India. The production and exporting of non-branded or generic drugs has put India amongst the worlds leading exporters of these products. These drugs are produced to help with conditions such as gonorrhea, heart disease, hyper tension, depression and many more illnesses.

The water from 90 pharmaceutical factories that manufacture these drugs is processed through a water treatment plant and then discharged into the local river. High levels of the drugs were found in the river water downstream from the plant. This bodes disturbing environmental consequences sooner or later for the area.

Once the drugs are imported into countries like the UK its not long before these are on the shelves of chemists etc., awaiting the doctors prescription that authorizes their purchase.

Nature takes its course after consumption and because not all of the prescribed medicine is metabolized it passes through the recipients system on its way to be processed at the nearest water treatment plant. Too many of these at present are not programmed to remove these from the water.

A fact that most of us are blissfully unaware of, is that water is recycled over and over again and its humans that put the contaminants into the water system through many different means from industrial factories to processing our waste.

These along with other ways is why we find prescription drugs in drinking water. So what can we do to remove them from our drinking water? Make use of a dual system activated carbon water filter. These are extremely effective in removing drugs from our drinking water.


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