Health Department on Drugs in Water: Just Say Yes

After a recent study detected minute quantities of pharmaceuticals in the city’s upstate water supply, the City Council has announced an emergency hearing to investigate the reports.

The Associated Press study found sedatives in water nationwide; in New York, traces of 15 different drugs (“for aches, infections, seizures and high blood pressure; hormones for menopause; the active ingredient in a popular sedative; and caffeine") turned up. Presumably the drugs entered the water supply via sewage - and wastewater treatment plants treat the germs, not the drugs.

The city’s Department of Health is sounding mellow (and well-hydrated?) about the drug water risks, issuing a statement saying that even if the study proves accurate, the doses "would be extremely small and would not be expected to adversely affect human health." Nevertheless, the Health Department says it will cooperate with the DEP “to monitor the situation and determine what additional steps are necessary" and "educate the public about pharmaceutical disposal in the watershed areas.”

But city councilman James Gennaro, who called the emergency hearing, seems like he needs to just chill out with a few glasses of ‘happy aqua’: "Though New York City currently meets all federal and state regulations for quality both in source watersheds and at the tap, I'm very concerned about the possible effects of even traces of pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. This hearing will allow the public, the scientific community and government officials to testify about their concerns and their actions in light of recent findings."

Photo: Kristine Paulus on Flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on March 11, 2008 1:05 PM

Comments [rss]

emilydickinson

Yeah, all those paranoid people? They're crazy! These are HELPFUL drugs in the water.

ed_Extinct

who cares?? there's cyanide in our water for health reasons...

Atomische

This is part of Bush's health/pharmacy plan.

GOP

It's not like the water we have today is any different from the water that was around millions of years ago. At some point in time the water was urine from a dinosaur or a mammoth or Hillary.

I'm still drinking tap water. Fuck paying $1 for a small Poland Spring bottle.

rcltrh

Of course the reality of the big picture is we are all really drinking lots of people's mixed up piss cocktails. That's a nice thought. The bigger report of the countrywide analysis is that people far downstream of large municipalities like those along the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers (New Orleans being the major drinker) are drinking treated urine of all the states above them whose water treatment plants dump into those rivers. Remember that next Mardi Gras when you have the water. Yum :-)

SP

It's because of all the aging hippies and baby boomers who live around the Ashokan Reservoir, flushing their old meds down the toilet and putting their coffee grounds in their compost heaps.

smitty

The effect on the environment should also be a consideration.

REALITY CHECK

I wouldn't worry about it. Either way, you're screwed. If you drink bottled water, you're guaranteed to have weird chemicals in your water:

http://google.com/search?q=water+bottles+trace+plastic

Rocknrope

Hell, the additives sound like what we already pay for in a bottle of VitaminWater.

MFer

Roger Clemens wants to know if HGH was found in the water--and could it explain the lump in his butt.

donner

(“for aches, infections, seizures and high blood pressure; hormones for menopause; the active ingredient in a popular sedative; and caffeine")

So soon we'll all be almost super-human! And the sedatives and caffeine balance each other out... Sounds like a good deal to me...