Hank Green talked about the dangers of the pharmaceutical remains found in human waste; many drugs are found in human and livestock’s pee and this ends up in the environment and causes negative side effects in fish and can even end up back in our water supply. Experiments exposed various species of fish to different drug residue mixed into the water; ibuprofen, anti-depressants, and estrogen found in birth control pills can all affect fish The effects on fish include making them more aggressive, and inhibiting the production of pheromones which can potentially dramatically diminish the population. Some solutions could be being stricter on the amount of drugs given out; making more drugs require prescriptions and making prescriptions harder to obtain. The obstacle to this would be the public complaint and having to differentiate between the people who need this drug and those who could instead be given alternative treatment with less environmentally harmful drugs. Another possible solution would be to improve water treatment to better filter out these harmful chemicals found in livestock and human waste. This would require an investment in capital and would require a company or activist group to take the lead in getting funding for this project. I think by educating people through videos like these on a less known form of pollution is an easy way to gain awareness on this problem and hopefully start a push for change.
I find the levels of cow waste and drugs from other people's pee in our drinking water very, very disturbing. But this was an interesting video! I hadn't ever thought of how the drug traces in our waste effect the ecosystem. Have scientists tried coming up with alternative drugs that leave less or no traces of drugs in our waste? Or maybe other drugs with the sole purpose of killing off drug traces before they leave the body? If not, I think this would be a worthy medical investment! A similar problem to the one mentioned in this article occurred when medical professionals disposed of drugs in the water, leaving behind harmful traces. An organization specifically designed to prevent harmful drug waste, Teleosis’s Green Pharmacy program, helped find an alternative to dumping the medicine in the water- incineration. Though we can't exactly incinerate our urine, maybe we can use this concept and come up with a chemical to put in our toilets that can kill off the traces of drugs we pee out. (By the way, the information relayed above, not my idea, came from http://www.marinmedicalsociety.org/magazine/articles/?articleid=424 ). It's at times like these when I'm glad I don't eat seafood.
This video gave me a horrible impression to water. My question/theory is, maybe it is of our "water" that is being mixed with different drugs together then being formed to some other dangerous drug that we now found in our water that we are using everyday? Now I thought water is the safest, not anymore. No wonder we human are developing such many disease, illness, and disorders constantly.
I find the levels of cow waste and drugs from other people's pee in our drinking water very, very disturbing. But this was an interesting video! I hadn't ever thought of how the drug traces in our waste effect the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteHave scientists tried coming up with alternative drugs that leave less or no traces of drugs in our waste? Or maybe other drugs with the sole purpose of killing off drug traces before they leave the body? If not, I think this would be a worthy medical investment!
A similar problem to the one mentioned in this article occurred when medical professionals disposed of drugs in the water, leaving behind harmful traces. An organization specifically designed to prevent harmful drug waste, Teleosis’s Green Pharmacy program, helped find an alternative to dumping the medicine in the water- incineration. Though we can't exactly incinerate our urine, maybe we can use this concept and come up with a chemical to put in our toilets that can kill off the traces of drugs we pee out. (By the way, the information relayed above, not my idea, came from http://www.marinmedicalsociety.org/magazine/articles/?articleid=424 ).
It's at times like these when I'm glad I don't eat seafood.
This video gave me a horrible impression to water. My question/theory is, maybe it is of our "water" that is being mixed with different drugs together then being formed to some other dangerous drug that we now found in our water that we are using everyday?
ReplyDeleteNow I thought water is the safest, not anymore.
No wonder we human are developing such many disease, illness, and disorders constantly.