What's In Your Water?
by Piper Wallingford
Turn on the faucet and out comes a clear, drinkable stream of dihydrogen monoxide. In developed counties, water is a given. We do not ask where it comes from, what is in it, or where it goes. We know that we can drink it, and that's all that matters. But to the rest of the world, safe water is a precious resource that many struggle to find.
In the United States, water regulations protect tap users from unsafe levels of heavy metals, chlorine by-products, and manmade contaminants like pesticides. But in March of 2008, a study found remnants of prescription drugs in the tap water of more than 40 million Americans. Prescription drugs that were not properly disposed of or metabolized had entered drinking water, even contaminating aquifers and reservoirs. The federal government does not require pharmaceuticals to be tested or treated, but drinking someone else's medication is a health hazard like any other contaminant.
Even though the quantities of drugs are small, the long-term exposure of a combination of prescriptions could affect people on a cellular level. A recent research study found that pharmaceuticals in water could cause cancer cells to spread more quickly, while blood cells appear to be inflamed. The trace amounts could also be the cause of some neurological diseases in children. The introduction of unnatural chemicals to the environment has also negatively affected wildlife. Fish living in contaminated waterways often display signs of sexual mutation, such as male fish developing ovaries. Animals that consume fish are further affected.
Even with the unknown effects of prescription drugs in drinking water, the quality of the water in the United States surpasses the quality of water, and its known dangers, in many developing countries.
More than 1.1 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water. Dysentery, cholera, and other waterborne diseases that are rare in developed countries still kill millions of people each year. In developing countries, poor water quality and limited access to healthcare means that these diseases can be fatal. More than 2 million people dies from diarrhea each year in developing countries, 90 are children younger than 5 years old.
Many people in developing countries do not have access to safe drinking water. Unprotected water sources like rivers or ponds often contain contaminants from runoff. A prevalence of tanker trucks and bottled water often indicates that a community must use an outside water source. In addition to improving infrastructure, public awareness is necessary to ensure safe drinking water. By promoting better sanitation practices, communities can protect their water resources. Improved sanitation facilities like septic tanks and closed sewers are examples of sanitation infrastructure that is common in developed countries. In developing counties, these practices would have a significant impact on peoples' access to safe drinking water.
While these practices can improve water quality, many of these diseases could be treated with the same pharmaceuticals that developed countries are flushing away. Even when these diseases are contracted in developed countries, many water-borne diseases are easily treated with antibiotics, which are often unavailable. Diarrhea is treated by rehydrating the patient with a solution made of clean water, a pinch of salt, and some sugar. Diarrhea solution costs pennies, which is a stark contrast to the cost of some prescription drugs in developed countries.
Water is necessary for life, but unsafe drinking causes unnecessary deaths each year. While sanitation improvement will eventually provide a greater quantity of safe drinking water, there is more immediate treatment for waterborne diseases. Developed countries worry about prescription drugs in their water, while developing countries worry about diseases that pharmaceuticals could treat. Water is an indicator of a larger problem: the lack of awareness by developed countries. People don’t know what's in their water, and they don't know how lucky they are compared to the rest of the world.
