When people throw away their prescription drugs, they could be sowing the seeds to their own destruction as the Daily Mail reports that experts believe the water is being poisoned by prescription drugs.
The problem is difficult to avoid as prescription drugs found in human waste causes problems in our drinking water.
Troubling Issues With our Drinking Water
As human waste is seeping into our water systems, it comes with a host of problems including the prescription drugs people take. These can be anything from heart drugs to depression and hormone pills.
The former chief scientist at the Environment Agency was saying that we’re being prescribed more and more drugs as we live longer because of the problems that come with ‘lengthy lives’.
The pharmaceuticals from the drugs leak into the water and are excreted in sewage works. This not only poses a problem to people drinking the water but it also poses problems to the wildlife.
Before, experts believed the substances would break down before entering the sewage water. It has recently been discovered that traces of these drugs find their way into the water through our waste, and some have been found downstream from pharmaceutical plants.
Antibiotics given to farm animals have found their way into lakes and rivers.
Another Issue Affecting our Water and the Environment
People will throw their tablets down the loo without a second thought. These unused tablets are the most dangerous and should be disposed of properly. Whether that’s to authorised collectors for disposal, returning them to the NHS or throwing it in the waste bin.
Fish and Crops are Contaminated
While the drinking water can be avoided to some extent by buying fresh bottled water, although constantly buying bottled water is not the best solution, the biggest worry is the impact on the environment.
This will have an impact on the food we eat and the air we breathe when wildlife are negatively affected by the contamination.
One 2013 report showed that concentrations of the anti-depressant oxazepam caused a change in behaviour in wild perch. They increased their activity, reduced their social interactions and had a higher feeding rate.
This change has a devastating consequence on the eco-system as their prey and predator can’t adapt quickly enough to the new and unnatural change.
This year in Lake Michigan, the freshwater fish were affected by the metformin drug that is a common treatment for type 2 diabetes. They observed that the concentrations found in metformin was stunting the growth and changing the sex of fish.
What are the Risks we Face?
While these problems aren’t prevalent in humans at the moment, it’s quite possible that we could experience these problems later on. Maybe a pregnant mother is at risk of disrupting the growth of her baby or changing the sex.
We’ve discussed the worry’s we face throughout this post and all the worry’s have a root cause. The root cause of the problem is those prescription drugs that contaminate the waterway via human waste.
The big question is, will experts continue to prescribe these drugs despite the overwhelming health concern, or will they begin to look for more natural organic alternatives as a solution to these problems.