Health, Wealth and Happiness

Here is an interesting article I just received, AP published.  Good reason to drink Dr. Miller’s Holy Tea!

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Think You’re Drug-Free? You’re NOT!

March 10th, 2008

Did you know that every time you take a drink of tap water, you’re taking drugs? And I’m not just talking about flouride here. Anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antiobiotics…and that’s just a few of the As!!

The AP just published an article about pharmaceuticals found in municipal water supplies. Not just floating around in the reservoirs, but in the actual water you’re drinking, cooking with, and bathing in. And every time you connect with that water, you’re taking in low levels of drugs. Which drugs and how many – well, no one is being directly forthcoming about that. But count on this: It’s a lot of different drugs, and more than you should be getting.

This is some seriously scary stuff – alarming, really. And it’s worse than it sounds, because not every municipality tested their water for drugs. And the ones that did, well only the drugs they’ve specifically tested for will be reported. Some water supplies contained dozens of different trace pharmaceuticals – Philadelphia, for example, turned up 56 different drugs in their drinking water. 56!

Yes, this is scary, and overwhelming. But it does have its funny moments, as reported in the AP article. Here are a few of my favorite lines:

Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug. [O]fficials in Emporia, Kan. refused to answer AP’s questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.
(Right…because Arlington, TX and Emporia, KS are known terrorist target cities, and not disclosing drug findings protects their citizens from…what exactly? )

Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.
 
Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. “Based on what we now know, I would say we find there’s little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health,” said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
 
“It could be that the fish are just exquisitely sensitive because of their physiology or something. ”
 
Confidence about human safety is based largely on studies that poison lab animals with much higher amounts.
 
“I think it’s a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent on human health,” said Snyder. 

Excuse me, but how is this issue not related to human health? We’re prescribed too many drugs. Those drugs end up hitting us a second time through the water supply – along with dozens of other drugs. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are breeding like never before. And the paltry amount of money governments are spending to find out if our most basic need is safe – that’s not critical human health spending? Now I’m really afraid.