Is this a brown trout on Viagra? Fish caught near Nobeoka–photo credit Syced. A commons image.
So, to be safe, you flushed the old bottle of rat poison and all your “out-of-date” estrogen pills down the toilet, along with a half dozen or so hydrocodone pills that Uncle Joe left in the guest bathroom.
Good for you; all the dangerous chemicals and pills are out of the kids’ reach.
You just helped poison the community’s water supply, a trout stream a few blocks away, and eventually a salt marsh miles away.
Household Chemicals and Prescription Drugs Found in Many U.S. Streams
By Henry Clement [excerpted from sources listed]
A new study suggests that the mixture of pollutants in many U.S. streams is more complicated and potentially more dangerous than previously thought.
Our infatuation with putting chemicals in our bodies, water supply, and fisheries is not ending. Daily Mail image (U.K.)–photo ScienceDirect.
Researchers checked for 719 organic chemicals in water samples from 38 streams across the United States and found more than half of those chemicals in the different samples.
The study, led by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency, found that every stream, even those in wild and uninhabited areas, had at least one of the chemicals, and some had as many as 162.
The detected chemicals included insecticides and herbicides, along with byproducts from their degradation; antibacterials such as triclosan; and medications such as antihistamines and the diabetes drug metformin.
The family probably will not want this drug-addicted “frankentrout” for dinner because it is loaded with estrogen —image courtesy of sexyloops (U.K.).
Chemicals were often detected together in streams. The researchers said further research is needed to determine the potential for complex interactions between these chemicals and assess whether they threaten aquatic life, the food chain, and human health.
Water pollution you cannot see
- Pharmaceuticals cannot be removed from wastewater treatment plants and will end up in lakes, streams, or drinking water.
- Pills and household chemicals in our drinking water can harm everyone and every living thing.
- Some medications, like antidepressants and hormones, can harm aquatic life by disrupting their reproduction and growth.
- Ingesting water tainted with pharmaceuticals reduces antibiotic resistance.
SOURCES:
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Robert Preidt Health Day News
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Sexyloops: https://www.
sexyloops.com/ - Daily Mail UK
- ScienceDirect
- DEA – click on below . . .
Contact DEA-Find authorized collectors in your community.
False albacore by award-winning watercolorist Thom Glace. They eat smaller fish of estuary origin, and if that forage fish has metformin, you eat the tuna, and so it goes.
