I've always tended to think as long as I attempted to provide nourishing and untreated food for family, it was a good contribution to our health care system, and therefore to the community as a whole. Naively, I never worried about our water supply.
When we were on well water it was tested. And everyone knows, municipal water is actually more rigorously tested than the bottled water you pay exorbitant prices for, so I've always used it.
Water contamination
And how about the recent Colorado River contamination tragedy which is likely to have incredibly awful consequences for many years to come? The details are awful, and I sure wouldn't like to drink any bottled water from that huge area. But then, I wouldn't really know about it, would I?
I'm thinking of this today, because of reports concerning the fact that we appear to be willy nilly drug users. All of us. It's a horror story, and something I started thinking about years ago, when frogs started turning up with female private parts, even though they were male.
Later it started happening with the fish.
Science and water
Governing people often resist hearing the truth. It can be quite uncomfortable, and Heaven help them if the people start demanding answers and solutions.
Drugs and glugs
No, there's no miracle cleanser to get the drugs out! At first it used to be just 'traces' years ago. But now, even if you don't have diabetes, you'll end up taking the drug Metaformin. And even if you're not depressed, you could be on a bunch of those medications too, and not even know it.
Even if you're not taking hormones, chemo, blood thinners, it doesn't matter! Because whether you want to or not, you're drinking them every time you drink water! So how does that make you feel, the ones who drink 8 glasses of the stuff every day, because it's healthy?
I hate thinking I'm a drug user. That there could be nasty amounts of cocaine in my water. But I have to drink water, in whatever form it comes in.
Admittedly the amounts are traces, but those traces are becoming more, very quickly, and drug prescription use is also increasing rapidly, due to advances in technology, and an aging population.
It is expanding to an extent that is worrying for scientists, and presumably just awful for the creatures that are doomed to live in this pharmaceutical soup. It's hard to do the research on this, as it's not popular with politicians, it requires funding for the special testing equipment, and it's difficult to take the blood pressure of a fish. One of the main contaminants is that of high blood pressure medications.
So what small things can we do?
- Ask questions of your politicians. Become an activist, and write a letter. Please.
- Don't flush drugs down the toilet. Take them to your pharmacist. But don't trust until they show you evidence documents of how they dispose of them. A schoolgirl did a research article, and found all pharmacies in her area actually flushed expired and returned drugs down the toilet! This may be common practice in your area too. You can change this! Be courageous for the generations to come. Keep asking questions.
There is an urgency to this. Only this morning ( 15/09/2015) there was a news article stating more than half of our aquatic creatures will be lost very soon.
Please, take your time to read this. Whether you want to or not, you're having your drink of drugs today. But if everyone works together, you'll help to go back to 'traces' in the water of the world.
Vicki