December 3, 2008
Pharmaceuticals in water just make fish sicker
Water treatment plants were never designed to remove pharmaceuticals from water, so many drugs wind up downstream from the water plants, which then become part of our larger marine population.
Since most people just flush their unused or unneeded drugs down the toilet or in the garbage, in many cases, it then winds up in the ocean.
The EPA has issued guidelines for properly disposing of unwanted pharmaceuticals, and here are White House guidelines for the proper disposal of prescription drugs.
The FDA advises that the following drugs be flushed instead of thrown in the trash:
- Actiq (fentanyl citrate)
- Avinza Capsules (morphine sulfate)
- Baraclude Tablets (entecavir)
- Daytrana Transdermal Patch (methylphenidate)
- Duragesic Transdermal System (fentanyl)
- Fentora (fentanyl buccal tablet)
- Meperidine HCl Tablets
- OxyContin Tablets (oxycodone)
- Percocet (Oxycodone and Acetaminophen)
- Reyataz Capsules (atazanavir sulfate)
- Tequin Tablets (gatifloxacin)
- Xyrem (Sodium Oxybate)
- Zerit for Oral Solution (stavudine)
Some hybrid striped bass exposed to Prozac eventually began hanging vertically in the water and stopped eating.
Credit: Clemson University’s Institute of Environmental Toxicology
If you are concerned about all those contaminants being lawfully poured into our water, you may want to try distilled water. Case in point: distilled water is used for CPAP machines, since tap water is not clean enough for inhaling right into our lungs through a CPAP machine – now that’s scary stuff!
Just as scary though is the fact that everybody fishing downstream of a water treatment plant is ingesting way more than their doctor’s prescribed limit of pharmaceuticals.
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