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Prescription Meds Get Trapped In Disturbing Pee-To-Food-To-Pee Loop (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A study published Tuesday in Environmental Science and Technology is the first to validate the long-held suspicion that pharmaceuticals may get trapped in infinite pee-to-food-to-pee loops, exposing consumers to drug doses with unknown health effects. In a randomized, single-blind pilot study, researchers found that anti-convulsive epilepsy drug carbamazepine, which is released in urine, can accumulate in crops irrigated with recycled water -- treated sewage -- and end up in the urine of produce-eaters not on the drugs. While the amounts of the drug in produce-eater's pee were four orders of magnitude lower than what is seen in the pee of patients purposefully taking the drugs, researchers speculate that the trace amounts could still have health effects in some people, such as those with a genetic sensitivity to the drugs, pregnant women, children, and those who eat a lot of produce, such as vegetarians. And with the growing practice of reclaiming wastewater for crop irrigation -- particularly in places that face water shortages such as California, Israel, and Spain --- the produce contamination could become more common and more potent, the authors argue.
NT
I swear officer Oby, your piss test is flawed. I don't do drugs.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
> those who eat a lot of produce, such as vegetarians.
Good thing I'm not a vegetarian then.
I think it's also important to note that this means you are inadvertently eating someone else's pee.
Mr. America walk on by your schools that do not teach Mr. America walk on by the minds that won't be reached
Drugs everywhere but in my stash box *sigh*
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Can we get to peak pharma yet?
I'm willing to let a bunch of people suffer and die for it, including myself whenever whatever befalls me.
Four orders of magnitude in "dosage" is likely to drop well below the level where it can have any measurable effect.
That's the same as a liter of water vs 0.1 milliliter (2 "standard" drops of water). Anything that is potentially dangerous in sub-milliliter volumes is unlikely to be prescribed in liter volumes for others.
I'm surprised the concentrations are high enough to only be 4 orders of magnitude off from a person actively taking the medication. I would have expected it to dilute a lot more than that over the course of irrigating a field of crops, picked, processed, cooked, and finally ingested.
I read the internet for the articles.
Do home water filters like Brita help with this kind of problem?
No they don't get trapped in a loop.
If I eat one of these prescription-laced carrots or whatever, I've got 1/10,000 (4 order of magnitude) less than the person who made that pee carrot. I will then contribute 1/10,000 of that, and someone will eat my pee and contribute 1/10,000 of THAT. By the third person, there is 1/1,000,000,000,000 and we're talking about homeopathic levels.
That's hardly 'trapped in a loop.'
The critical words are "single blind test" and Speculate
Basically - researchers went looking for something and strangely found it
I wonder what will happen when they look for poisons (arsenic, cyanide etc) or dead insects.
Just a bull shit story went to get media coverage
even then the summary doesn't make sense. one person on a drug. One person has a drug at concentrate x in their urine.
This is mixed with all the other peoples waste water from showers, washing etc - then added to a crop, harvested, eaten and then the eaters urine is tested and found to be x/10,000 concentrate.
Even if they chose a food stuff that concentrated the drug, that sounds like bollocks
The only way I can see of getting that level of concentrate is if drug taker was pissing on the plant and then it was eaten without being washed properly (or at all)
Just sensationalist bollocks designed to get publicity - the Donald Trump of science!
That compound seems to have low biological affinity: if it could be absorbed and expelled intact by both humans and crops, how could it have any biological effect?
If you are concerned with say lead or pharmaceuticals, Reverse Osmosis will get it out. The process uses 5 parts untreated water to give you 1 part purified so it is wasteful. It runs off the pressure supplied by your water line so there's that. I got a setup for about 100 bucks online. It works ok. More expensive units probably do better. My total dissolved solids meter shows tap water at 350ppm here and the RO water at about 20 ppm. get one with a tank if you go cheap, it delivers a tiny trickle of purified so if you want to fill a glass you would be waiting like 5 minutes without a tank.
sucks to be you, then, i guess.
- a meat eater
Now we can shut down those evil Pharma companies since everything is pre-medicated!!!
All the effort spent on glyphosate..... Versus actual drugs that work in humans. I wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg?
Can someone tell me which veggies will contain the most oxycontin? Asking for a friend.
Please God, don't let it be brussels sprouts. They give me wicked gas.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Some lake water sources in Europe with sand based soil around them have been detected forming a bacterial films or a net at the bottom which conveniently filters most medical waste products away from the water supply. Perhaps bioengineered bacterial filters could be used to manage the pollution.
The good news: We just made all your prescription drugs affordable.
The bad news...
The fact that estrogen can be a problem for fish" does not lead to the conclusion that this chemical is a problem, nor does the the fact it is a low dose does mean it is harmless. Sure it "might" cause problems in fish/humans but where is the evidence that it does?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
This along with Bisphenol-A in the lining of every can of soda and water bottle may explain a thing or two.
...what on Earth are birth control pills doing to us in our environment?
Lets study the effect by having a Monkey drink the pee of a schizophrenic on Aripiprazole. Stream it live! Pun intended.
So, once consumed, metabolized, excreted, grown in plants, and re-consumed, the drug molecules don't break down?
I thought P2P meant something else.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
How else can we explain the explosion of LGBT in America vs hardly any LGBT anywhere else in the world?
Oh the humanity. Perhaps they can integrate it into FoodTorrent.
Approximately 4000, unless you nigated some factors. Then that number would change.
Probably not, but it's sterile, and I like the taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
This is homeopathy in action, guys.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Abstract: the water may have just been treated for bacteria, and that hasn't cut it for urban effluent for at least a decade.
I've read the paper, and I was disappointed to find that the researchers didn't provide any context regarding the type(s) of treatment used on the wastewater before it was dumped into the irrigation systems.
I followed up with one of the footnotes: Wastewater treatment and use in agriculture - FAO irrigation and drainage paper 47, where I find in section 2.3 that for water to be recycled for crops that were likely to be eaten uncooked, the FAO is just talking in terms of stabilization ponds for killing off the microorganisms. That's not enough. It also needs to be filtered, as if they were dealing with brackish or seawater.
I'd been to a couple of American Water Works Association conferences in the aughts, so I know the treatment industry has been aware of and has the techniques for clearing what goes into our toilets out of the waste water at manageable costs. As of the 2007 conference, the main concern was to avoid loading up the critters downstream from the waste water plants with caffeine, birth control hormones, pain relievers, and recreational drugs.
But, given the anticipated growth in water reuse for both irrigation and drinking, water system managers were already anticipating the need to do better. In this case, the Israelis obviously need to do better.
Full disclosure: I served on a water supply board for 5 years.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Nigated! Haha!