Flushing Prescription Drugs Down the Toilet is Not a Good Idea

Every year we flush millions of prescription drugs down the toilet. Then they end up in our drinking water supply. The problem is that the water filtration plants aren't designed to filter out these drugs. So when you take a drink of water out of the faucet, you are ingesting a minute amount of a wide variety of prescription drugs. No one really knows what effect this will have on your health.

Most municipalities around the country have days set aside where you can turn in your outdated and unused medications to the DEA and they will destroy them safely. Contact your local city hall to find out the times and locations.

For many years doctors have told us to flush our unused medications down the toilet. Now scientists have found that they get into and contaminate the water supply. The most common pills found in the drinking water are: antidepressants, antibiotics, birth-control pills and cosmetics.

According to the Healthy Planet Magazine:

"Thanks in part to 1999 changes to federal regulation of broadcast-media pharmaceutical ads and fueled by our societal expectation of instant results, drug sales in 2002 surpassed a dozen prescriptions for every American man, woman and child." The United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world where direct consumer marketing of prescription drugs isn't illegal.

A part of the problem is that because of the advertising, many of us are constantly asking our doctors for prescriptions that we don't really need. This is particularly true of antibiotic prescribed to treat a viral infection such as a cold or the flu. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses, only bacteria.

Sometimes doctors over prescribe medications as well. My cholesterol has always been in the low to normal range, but my doctor wants me to take statins, cholesterol lowering drugs. I won't do it. I take enough drugs already. Instead of taking a bunch of blood pressure lowering drugs, try changing your diet and exercise more. You may not need them after all.

And humans aren't the only things that prescription drugs in the water affects. Some fish in rivers and streams where the volume of prescription drugs is high are beginning to develop both male and female characteristics. They are then unable to breed and this is not a good thing for the already struggling fish population.

So lets focus on not dumping our prescriptions in the Earth's waterways and drinking water this Earth Day and every day throughout the year. And don't take prescriptions that you don't really need. The side effects of this may be a healthier you as well as a less polluted earth.

Source: http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/april2011_earthworms.htm