How Safe Is Your Drinking Water? AP Investigation Reveals Pharmaceutical Drugs Contaminate Many Public Water Systems
A complex assortment of pharmaceutical drugs has been found in the drinking water supplies of tens of millions of Americans, according to a recent Associated Press investigation. The contamination affects the drinking water supplies of at least 24 major metropolitan areas across the U.S., including the DC Metro area.
Faced with the data, most public utility companies insist their drinking water is safe, and that no one is endangered by the minute traces of pharmaceutical pollutants. Some scientists, however, express concern for the potential long-term health consequences to the public -- both through direct contamination, and by the potential that the continuing effectiveness of drugs such as antibiotics could be jeopardized.
In compiling their report, members of the Associated Press National Investigative Team analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited treatment plants and study sites, and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. Further, the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers were surveyed, as well as smaller community water providers across the nation, among their findings were the following:
- "The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
- Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
- Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
- Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
- A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.
- Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz."
According to the report, the federal government doesn't require any testing of public water systems for contamination by pharmaceutical drugs, and hasn't set safety limits regarding acceptable levels of drugs in drinking water. Of the 62 major public water providers contacted by research team members, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City did not test their water, even given the fact that New York City's Department of Environmental Protection routinely delivers drinking water to 9 million people.
Other water companies screen only for one or two drugs, leaving open the possibility that other contaminants are present, but undetected.
Diagnostic tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major water providers surveyed by the AP, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28, indicating that in many instances, the nation's primary water sources are also already contaminated. Officials in 6 of those 28 major metropolitan areas, however, said they did not test their drinking water even though they knew that their watersheds were contaminated with prescription drugs. Among those cities that don't test, despite polluted watersheds: Fairfax, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland.
Authors of the report warn that even bottled water drinkers can't necessarily avoid exposure, as some bottled water companies merely repackage tap water, and few typically treat or test for pharmaceutical pollution. Home filtration systems are also ill-equipped to remove pharmaceutical products from tap water, they advise.