Drugs in your water

 

Big Pharma in Your Drinking Water

By: Cat Ebeling, RN, MSN-PHN, co-author of the best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen, The Top 101 Foods that Fight Aging & The Diabetes Fix

What if you were unintentionally drinking multiple medications in your glass of water? Medications such as blood pressure medicine, diabetes medicine, epilepsy medication, birth control pills and antibiotics. All of these have been found in drinking water samples in multiple cities and towns across the U.S. as well as the rest of the world in significant quantities.

Pharmaceuticals can get into water supplies via human excretion or drugs being flushed down the toilet. Runoff and waste from pharmaceutical plants and huge animal feedlots also get washed (or dumped) into rivers and water supplies. While most people would think wastewater treatment plants would get the medications and other sneaky chemicals out of the water supply, many of these, including pharmaceuticals, can easily pass through water treatment systems undetected.

A very recent new study published in Science Daily looked at pharmaceuticals in the rivers of the world, and found potentially toxic levels in almost every area covered in the research!

This study looked at 258 rivers around the world, including rivers that run through major cities such as the Thames in London and the Amazon in Brazil. According to Science Daily’s report, 61 different pharmaceuticals were measured including:

• Carbamazepeine (an anti-epileptic medication)
• Metformin (commonly used for diabetes treatments)
• Propranolol (a beta-blocker for high blood pressure)
• Sulfamethoxazole (an antibiotic)
• Ciprofloxacin (an antibiotic)
• Loratadine (an antihistamine for allergies)
• Caffeine
• Sex hormones (birth control pill)

This study forms a portion of the University of York-led Global Monitoring of Pharmaceuticals Project with the new study becoming one of the first world-wide investigation of medicinal contamination in the environment.

Some of the shocking findings of this latest study (as summarized in Science Daily) include:

• The fact that pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating water on every continent.
• A significant correlation exists between the socioeconomic status of the population and higher levels of pollution. In other words, lower-level income status = higher levels of medication pollution.
• Higher levels of pollution were also associated with higher median age groups, higher rates of unemployment, and higher poverty.
• Most polluted countries and regions of the world are the areas that have been studied the least—including sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and southern Asia.

Big Pharma is in Your Nearby Rivers

Cities around the world use rivers for water sources. Unfortunately, those same rivers are often used as dumping grounds as well. The high levels of pharmaceutical pollution in some areas are attributed to the dumping of trash and medical rubbish along riverbanks, inadequate wastewater disposal, and the existence of pharmaceutical companies operating in nearby areas, dumping their waste straight into the water supply.

In a 2004 to 2009 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study, scientists found that pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities can be a significant source of pharmaceuticals in the environment—especially the water supply. This study shows that liquid waste from these two wastewater treatment plants picked up discharge from nearby pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and had up to 1,000 times higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals than 24 other wastewater treatment plants across the nation—not near pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.

Farm Runoff

Pharmaceutical companies are not the only source of pharmaceuticals in your water system. As you may already know, massive amounts of antibiotics and other drugs are used in the livestock industry. Runoff from animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) end up in ground water, streams, and nearby rivers as well. Other pharmaceuticals besides antibiotics including acetaminophen, caffeine, nicotine byproducts, antihistamines, and tranquilizers have also been found in the water as well.

Are You Taking Your Neighbor’s Medication?

Another huge source of pharmaceuticals in the water just happens to be large populations. Any drugs that don’t fully get metabolized in someone’s body will end up in wastewater systems. And unfortunately, these drugs can be detected miles downstream from wastewater-treatment plants, simply because many of these plants just cannot remove the pharmaceuticals from the water.

There are plenty of cities in the U.S. that pump their drinking water directly out of the local rivers in the area, and then purify the water for drinking. The degree to which pharmaceuticals get cleaned out of the drinking water varies greatly across the U.S., but for many cities, a plethora of pharmaceuticals is floating around in your glass of drinking water.

Take Southern California for example, about half of all the drinking water is supplied by the Colorado River. The water from the Colorado River that Southern California is drinking just happens to be downstream of Las Vegas where there are a good number of pharmaceuticals are flushed into the water supply. Southern California also happens to be downstream of several large cattle feedlots and grazing lands that are across the Southwest U.S. These pharmaceuticals just cannot be filtered out of the water.

This same international study shows Dallas, Texas as a “hot spot” with cumulative concentrations of 10,000 nanograms/liter (parts per trillion) of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) showing up in the water system. Las Vegas comes in just behind Dallas at ~5,000 nanograms/liter of APIs.

And yet another study found a whopping 56 pharmaceuticals in the drinking water, in Philadelphia. Antibiotics like amoxicillin and doxycycline, pain killers like acetaminophen and prednisone, anti-seizure drugs like carbamazepine and phenytoin, and addictive substances like nicotine and caffeine, along with 48 others that were present in trace concentrations. Yet another 2008 investigation by the Associated Press found medications in the drinking water of over 40 million Americans.

How Pervasive is This Problem of Big Pharma in the Water?

Fourteen different pharmaceutical ingredients have been found in sampling sites in Antarctica, South America, North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. A pervasive problem, don’t you think? It’s very hard to get away from this.

The drugs included acetaminophen, beta blockers (which slow the heart rate and control blood pressure), epilepsy medication, antihistamines, antidepressants, antianxiety medication, and several antibiotics. Only two areas in the 258 samples were drug-free: Iceland and a small remote village in Venezuela.

In any case, sewage plants are just not designed to remove or treat pharmaceuticals, nor are they required to. So far, the EPA and other agencies have not set any kind of standards for the presence of pharmaceuticals in water, mostly because no one is sure what levels are safe or not. But tell me, do you want to be taking any extra medications? This cannot be healthy. Some of these medications, even in small doses can have the possibility of side effects or even addiction. The effects over time can be cumulative.

What About Fish and Other Organisms?

Research has also been done to discover if levels of drugs could cause adverse effects to organisms living in the rivers–or to humans who eat fish from rivers. Fish are studied to check levels of environmental pollution because of their capability to absorb pollutants from the water.

Researchers found high concentrations of antidepressants in the brains of fish from the Niagara River. Research by Cornell University found pharmaceuticals in the Hudson, and documented antibiotic resistant bacteria in the river, most likely originating with antibiotics that have found their way into sewage systems.

Psychoactive drugs such as antiepileptics and antidepressants, are the most prevalent types of medications that seem to show up in most all fish species. Many studies have reported biological alterations including reproductive, physiological, and behavioral alterations in the fish studied most likely caused by these compounds in the water.

Bottom Line

Besides big Pharma residue, you may be drinking a host of other scary chemicals in your water. These chemicals along with the medication residue may or may not be causing long term health issues—but no one really knows because it is not really being studied as of now. The question is—are you comfortable drinking pharmaceutical and chemical leftovers in your water?

I know, I am not. My best advice is to invest in a high-quality reverse osmosis system or a Berkey water filtration system if you like to drink tap water—especially if you are on a city water system that feeds from nearby rivers and streams. And be very, very wary if you happen to live near any type of pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. You may never know exactly what you are drinking or the long-term effects it has on your health.

References
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/chd-tv-rfk-podcast-gary-wockner-drinking-water-polluted-big-pharma/?fbclid=IwAR1aVfPGX1FGve5asjKSraaHWzmepJkN2ipMd4VHr0BD0qjKxRYvNRM6e6c
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/02/19/high-levels-of-drugs-found-dissolved-in-many-parts-of-hudson-river/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220214121254.htm
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/pharmaceuticals-water
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4420942&page=1
https://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/3108
https://www.americanrivers.org/threats-solutions/clean-water/pharmaceuticals-personal-care/

 Source: https://bennettleeross.com/science/trusting-medical-system-unhealthy/

TRUSTING OUR MEDICAL SYSTEM IS UNHEALTHY

Doctors and dentists are trained in a college curriculum that is run by Big Pharma and Big Ag and other nefarious industries. Colleges are paid handsomely to allow the ideas of these profit oriented businesses into the classroom. Professors are paid big bucs to allow their name on papers endorsing what is written by these corporate entities.

Big Pharma and Big Ag not only write the medical journals and agricultural publications their infiltration into the political arena is widespread. They are motivated by money. That is their focus.

Doctors, surgeons, cardiologists etc. are educated by a system which does not want people to be healthy. They rely on sickness to make money. If everyone was healthy these health care professionals would be broke.

People are motivated to get into these careers by visions of a life of luxury and a guarantee of success and respect.

One can get an impressive title and an assurance of a big bi-weekly paycheck by following the rules.

The rules are to prescribe synthetic chemicals which are often toxic to their unwitting patients.

And to endorse a diet consisting of animal flesh.

These remedies are the cause of health problems.

Doctors have become nothing more than drug pushers. Popping pills is not the answer.

They diagnose cancer when their sole motivation is money. One cancer patient can mean upwards to $50,000 for a doctor.

If they send 300 people to get a vaccine they get a $30,000 bonus.

If they prescribe a certain pharmaceutical pill enough times they get a free vacation.

Cardiologists will try to get a person to assent to a needless heart surgery. One surgery means tons of money in their pocket.

Sometimes though it is a good thing such as when they remove the fat that was once in cows, pigs, chickens and fish which is clogging up arteries.

These health professionals have very little training in nutrition. A whole food plant based diet will many times solve the health issue.

When you go into a hospital cafeteria what do you see? You see processed foods. You see junk food. And you see animal flesh disguised as some dish. Obviously the focus is not on health.

Fifteen years ago I was struggling with heart aryithmia. I was prescribed beta blockers. They did help. But they did not cure. I got to the point where I knew I could not continue taking them. If anyone has had heart palpitations they will know that they will drive you crazy. I was desperate. I went vegan overnight. Soon afterwards I noticed an improvement. They gradually went away. I healed myself!

Nutritionists will promote eating animal products and genetically modified foods. These nutritionists are usually not in very good health themselves and a lot of times are overweight.

Do not trust anyone. Even though they are good at sounding empathetic and professional. They are just people out for a buc. Some do have a little sincerity.

Times are changing though. The head of the American Cardiology Association is a vegan.

Many doctors are becoming vegan and are speaking out on You Tube.

Nutritionists are becoming more plant based.

A mix of chemicals concocted in some laboratory should not be presented as a cure. Our bodies are not meant to be full of synthetic chemicals.

What should be emphasized is an alkaline diet consisting of 70% fruits and vegetables. This will prevent many viruses from living in your body. And it will also keep the ones that were put into your body via vaccinations from spreading.

Make sure you have a holistic dentist who doesn’t use fluoride.

There is a natural fluoride which our bodies need only trace amounts.

But the fluoride used in the dental industry is a component of phosphate rock. By adding sulfuric acid the fluoride is separated from the phosphate creating toxic fluoride compounds.

These fluoride combinations are an industrial waste product. Initially they were released into the air but that killed neighboring animals and vegetation. So now they have been repackaged as cavity fighters when all they do is promote tooth decay.

Toxic fluoride compounds are also sold to cities to dump in the water supply. It’s a well known fact that fluoride will encompass the pineal gland making a person complacent, obedient and unable to question authority.

The phosphate is further refined to produce phosphoric acid which is comparable to battery acid and is used in soft drinks.

Mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive element on Earth. Yet it is 50% of dental amalgam fillings.

It is also in vaccinations. Combining mercury with other chemicals does not make the mercury safe.

Root Canals are promised by dentists to be better than your natural teeth. They try to sterilize a roots’ canal by spraying formaldehyde in it which is highly poisonous.

 

Without the tooth root supplying blood to the area, keeping out bacteria is impossible. An infestation will occur and bacteria will spread to other parts of the body causing infections and cancer.

Dentists drill out good healthy parts of your teeth to put fillings on.

They drill our neighboring teeth to put a bridge on.

They give you X-rays which are damaging to soft tissue.

And scrape off your precious enamel and think nothing of it.

Here is wisdom – Be very hesitant to let a dude with a dumb dental degree put a power drill in your mouth!

Teeth are valuable! They are not only for eating and attractiveness but part of our bioelectrical make-up.

Having metal in your mouth disrupts energy flow.

The medical system can be your best friend or your worst nightmare.

Be your own physician and heal yourself!

Juicing for Health

 

Food = Medicine

Foods high in vitamin C reduce the risk of heart disease, lowers blood pressure, fights cancer while boosting your immunity, and it is crucial for your body in order to detoxify toxins out of the system.

Since the vegetables we eat now are far less nutritious than it was 50 years or 100 years ago because of several factors, like over-farming that depletes nutrients from the soil, we simply have to eat more to compensate for this.

This is why the juicing is a great choice. The goal of a juicing is to rest our digestive system, nourish it with nutrients found in fruits and vegetables then flush out toxins. 

You can use this list to get started with juicing. Juicing isn’t a gimmick but a beneficial practice that will help you improve your health when done right.

The Best Medicine