I'm sure I don't need to tell you that in the last few weeks the snow has begun to melt and the sun has been shining on the regular. As if that wasn't good enough, Spring Break is next week, and I might even graduate in May. Indeed, I can't remember the last time I felt this good - could it be that things are starting to look up, or is it just something in the water?
During the last five months the Associated Press reviewed hundreds of scientific reports and interviewed dozens of officials before announcing this week 41 million Americans are drinking water that is contaminated by pharmaceutical drugs.
Officials found antibiotics, anxiety drugs, mood stabilizers, epilepsy drugs, sex hormones and anti-cholesterol drugs (just to name a few) in extremely low levels in much of the nation's drinking water. At this point, 24 major metropolitan areas and more than half of the nation's watersheds have been affected.
It is obvious - and somewhat disgusting - how the drugs find their way into our drinking water. People take prescription and over the counter drugs, and most of the drugs are absorbed into the bloodstream. But some amount is not absorbed and is passed into the sewage system. From the septic systems, the waste water is treated - a process which eliminates bacteria, but not traces of drugs - and eventually recirculated into the water supply.
I saw this story make the rounds on all the network news channels - usually between a commercial for Cialis and another for Vytorin. During the 30-second blurb, most anchors said the levels were not thought to be problematic by the EPA or FDA. In fact, few are worried about the possible repercussions of the contaminated water.
Most Americans have been drinking from this water supply and will most likely continue to do so. The water is, after all, germ and bacteria free. Perhaps it is true that at this point there is not cause to worry - it isn't likely that at such low levels the drugs will be damaging.
Still, others are quick to point out that there are almost no studies on low levels of pharmaceuticals over a long period of time. To say the least, however, while this recent revelation regarding our nations drinking water may not be problematic in and of itself, it is symptomatic of some much larger problems in American society.
At the very least I hope this serves as a wake-up call as to how complacency and the sum of all of our actions can adversely impact our planet and our natural resources. This is just the latest in the litany of recent happenings that should teach us this fact.
In addition, perhaps this should give cause for us to inspect the current state of prescription drugs in this country. Maybe we are finding unsettling numbers of prescription drugs in our water supply because Americans are taking an unsettling amount of prescription drugs.
In the last decade the number of Americans taking prescription drugs has increased by over two-thirds. This is partially because drug companies - who are, as a group, routinely posting billions of dollars of profit annually - have shifted their focus from treating those who are fatally ill to promoting long-term medications for healthy adults. Why? Because that's where the money is.
In 2006, 3.7 billion prescriptions were written in the United States, and, according to the Center for Disease Control, 130 million people in the United States were on some kind of prescription drug.
If the fact that our water is now contaminated with these substances doesn't scare you, maybe this will: Well over 125,000 Americans die from prescription drug reactions each year, according to the Associated Press. That makes pharmaceuticals the fourth-leading national cause of death after heart disease, cancer and stroke. Sadly, Americans are being vastly over-medicated for minor health concerns, often only exacerbating the problem or creating an unwanted side effect (luckily, Pfizer makes pills for those too).
The contaminated water is just an effect, albeit an alarming one. And, like my brothers in Funkadelic have been known to say, If you don't like the effect, don't produce the cause.""
Matt Jividen is a senior majoring in history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
