Chemically Pacifying European Populations
Don't blame the pill for estrogen in drinking water
Date:
February 15, 2011
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Contrary to popular belief, birth control pills account for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the nation's drinking water supplies, scientists have concluded in an analysis of studies published on the topic. Their report suggests that most of the sex hormone – source of concern as an endocrine disruptor with possible adverse effects on people and wildlife – enters drinking water supplies from other sources.
Contrary to popular belief, birth control pills account for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the nation's drinking water supplies, scientists have concluded in an analysis of studies published on the topic. Their report suggests that most of the sex hormone – source of concern as an endocrine disruptor with possible adverse effects on people and wildlife – enters drinking water supplies from other sources. The report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Amber Wise, Kacie O'Brien and Tracey Woodruff note ongoing concern about possible links between chronic exposure to estrogens in the water supply and fertility problems and other adverse human health effects. Almost 12 million women of reproductive age in the United States take the pill, and their urine contains the hormone. Hence, the belief that oral contraceptives are the major source of estrogen in lakes, rivers, and streams. Knowing that sewage treatment plants remove virtually all of the main estrogen – 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) – in oral contraceptives, the scientists decided to pin down the main sources of estrogens in water supplies.
Their analysis found that EE2 has a lower predicted concentration in U.S. drinking water than natural estrogens from soy and dairy products and animal waste used untreated as a farm fertilizer. And that all humans, (men, women and children, and especially pregnant women) excrete hormones in their urine, not just women taking the pill. Some research cited in the report suggests that animal manure accounts for 90 percent of estrogens in the environment. Other research estimates that if just 1 percent of the estrogens in livestock waste reached waterways, it would comprise 15 percent of the estrogens in the world's water supply.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101208125813.htm
updated 3/10/2008 11:06:37 AM ET
Pharmaceuticals lurking in U.S. drinking water
AP probe found traces of meds in water supplies of 41 million Americans
Duane Moser, an assistant research professor with Desert Research Institute, collects water samples from the Las Vegas Wash in Henderson, Nev.
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
…more…
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23503485/ns/health-health_care/t/pharmaceuticals-lurking-us-drinking-water/#.XIHbvKB7n_8