Presentation about Drugs found in Driking water - Essay Example

Your full November 13, Drugs Found in Drinking Water Birth control pill endangers fish populations. 1.1. There is very little awareness as to how orally taken birth control pills can affect water population. 1.2. Wencong (para.1) states in his report that Liangjie Dong, an expert in heavy metal pollution in water at the University of Hawaii, mentions in the Journal of Environmental Sciences that “China has high levels of estrogen disrupting compounds or EDC in its drinking water.” 1.3. Estrogen present in orally taken hormonal contraceptive passes through bodies into the sanitation system, and then into the lakes and rivers, if not processed by the sewage system. 1.4.

Water cleaning treatments are too conventional to clean up the estrogen disrupting compounds (EDC) from the water. 1.5. This estrogen breaks down relatively harder than the naturally produced hormone. Thus, it is taken up by the fish population. 1.6. This estrogen evokes infertility in male fish. 1.7. It also causes the birth of hermaphroditic fish. 1.8. Other damages include premature spawning of shell fish. 1.9. Fish also become unable to damage their repair fins after consuming such water. 1.10.

However, it is not sensible to throw up birth control on the whole. 1.11. Birth control should be done in safer ways that are suitable for the environment around us, so that it remains green while bringing people and sea animals on the safer side simultaneously. 1.12. Birth control measures should have less environmental impact. Example is usage of copper-releasing IUD devices, bio-degradable condoms, latex condoms, etc. 1.13. Condoms should also not be thrown into water streams where fish population lives, because they add to water pollution. 1.14.

Sex abstinence is also necessary, so that the chance of pregnancies, leading to use of birth control pills causing water pollution, diminishes. 2. Fighting drugs in drinking water. 2.1. Since estrogen is found not only in birth control pills, but also in many other sources like industrial waste and animal stool, it is illogical to blame only the birth control pills for the production and expulsion of estrogen into the water streams. 2.2. A better solution is to improve the waste water treatment processes, so that dangerous chemicals and hormones, like industrial waste, human waste, and pills residues, do not enter into the lakes and rivers. 2.3.

It is also important that we think about ways that help to keep the sanitation water clean, or nearly clean, like reducing the usage of birth control pills and thinking out of alternate ways. 2.4. We should not dump the expired pills and pharmaceuticals down the flush system or into the waste basket, because at the end, it all ends up in the water streams, lakes, and rivers, from where it is re-used for drinking purpose. 2.5. Expired pills should be returned to the pharmacies instead. 2.6.

Government should implement water treatment plants, which should use the latest technologies. 2.7. Advanced treatment measures like advanced oxidation, membrane filtration, and nano-filtration should be introduced at large scale. 2.8. Chlorination should be encouraged at small scale like tube wells and home water tanks. Works CitedWencong, Wu. Infertility Concerns After EDC Claims. China Daily, 2012. Web. 13 Nov 2012. .