AR-News: (Canada) What's in our water? Rivers tested for drugs

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

NEWS STORY
What's in our water? Rivers tested for drugs
Antibiotics, hormones on Alberta search list
 
Hanneke Brooymans
The Edmonton Journal


Saturday, December 20, 2003

EDMONTON - Alberta's rivers have undergone a first-ever, exhaustive round of 
drug-testing this year as Alberta Environment tries to find out whether 
pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and cosmetics are polluting our water.
The department tested river water above and below Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary 
and Lethbridge.
Its Water Research Users Group wanted to look at the cities' drinking water 
resources and at the outflow from municipal sewage treatment plants, said 
Robert Moyles, a department spokesman.
"The pharmaceuticals in water are not something we know a lot about," he 
said. "We certainly need to supplement our knowledge of what the impacts might be 
and if we need to take steps to address those."
On the test list are: antibiotics, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, caffeine, 
nicotine, steroids, human growth hormones, testosterone, estrogen and key indicators 
of cosmetics and cleaning products.
A study published this year by the United States Geological Survey showed 80 
per cent of 139 streams across the U.S. had everything from steroids to 
disinfectants in them.
This news hit the toxicology community "like lightning," said Alice Hontela, 
an ecotoxicologist at the University of Lethbridge and a member of the 
recently formed provincial Water Research Centre.
"The big question is what do they do to humans and animals who drink the 
water that is not treated to remove these chemicals," Hontela said.
A study released this fall showed fish in Texas carried traces of Prozac, a 
popular antidepressant, in their organs. This could affect their ability to 
survive, the study suggested.



full story:
http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=F9B1D93F-E869-4404-929D-737B6837FAE6

"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.",
Albert Einstein
My choice for fashion is compassion ... They need it more than we do."
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