A Question of Drugs

First let me explain; I am an ill educated old man, not for me the life of a university student or the path of further education. My life revolved around working just to keep body and soul together. So if I make a mistake in relating the facts then you have my apology. My hypothesis comes the evidence that I have gleaned from different sources and hence what follows is my conclusions on the matter, it is up to you to say if you believe that there is a need to worry about it.

Some time ago I read about fish that were changing sex, no these were not in laboratories nor were they in an episode of the Simpsons. It was all to do with the birth pill and the estragon that was excreted into the sewage systems. The water was cleaned, as one would expect, of solids and bacteria and the clean water released into the rivers. As one may expect this river waters made their way as they have done for millennia down to our seas, and there it mixed with the salt water of the oceans. Unfortunately it would seem that there is no system in these sewage plants to extract the drugs that these rivers contain. Yes we clean it of bacteria by use of chlorine; we use aerators and an awful lot more.

SEWAGE TREATMENT CHEMICALS

KE-59 Bacterial Enzymes
KE-59B Bacterial Enzymes
KE-59BL5 Microbial Block
KE-59C Compost Digestant
KE-73 Homogenizer & Solubilizer
KE-74 Algaecide (Swimming Pool)
KE-99B Salt Additive
KE-116 Defoamer
KE-129 Flocculant
KE-129C Sludge Settling Agent
KE-129D Acid Flocculant
KE-129DO Ph Down
KE-129UP Ph Up
KE-131 Petroleum Base Odor Control *
KE-131B Odor Control (Waterbase) *
KE-131F Odor Control (Gel) *
KE-132 Petroleum Base Odor Control *
KE-133 Sewer Degreaser
KE-133B All Natural Floating Citrus
Degreaser
KE-133BP Floating Pine Deodorizer
& Degreaser
KE-133C Floating All Natural Degreaser
KE-133CP Floating Pine Degreaser
KE-135 Odor Neutralizer
KE-151 Odor Control Granules
KE-189B High Count Liquid Live Bacteria
(200 Billion Count)
KE-199 Tracer Dye
KE-199G Green Powdered Tracer Dye
KE-199R Red Powdered Tracer Dye

But as far as I know we do not have a system in place to remove the excess drugs that are passed from our bodies. This of course does not take account of the unwanted drugs that we cheerfully throw away down our toilets, and never thinking that we are polluting our rivers, streams and seas. Of course the side effect of doing this is that we give the rats and other animals a cocktail of drugs that may make them thrive, or at the very least mutate.

So if we are throwing drugs down our toilets, excreting antibiotics, estragon, cancer drugs and who knows what else into our sewers. Then failing to remove those said drugs and allowing them to escape into our one and only biosphere. What is going to be the result? Will we mutate our sea life, will we poison our sea food or will we make this a world of giant drug ridden oceans? As I have said I am no scientist nor am I an academic that can pontificate on this matter. I have no answers to this, but I do know that if this exists it is a problem created by the western world. After all it is the first world countries that are swallowing pills by the handful.
If we don’t start asking the question soon we may have left it too late. But perhaps I see a problem where none exists; perhaps we already have something in place to filter out these drugs, or maybe this is not really a problem at all? Anyway it’s up to you to decide if you think we have a reason to worry.