The Washington Post is Drugged

There is "concern," according to The Washington Post, about the increasing amounts of prescription drugs and other toxic materials in our drinking water, and in fish in rivers and streams. The Post's lead sentence says that experts are "starting to question" whether "massive amounts of pharmaceuticals" which are being flushed down toilets and discarded unsafely "pose a threat" to aquatic life and humans.

Let's look at what I believe is the key paragraph of the entire article. Here it is:

"But several rank-and-file EPA employees said senior agency officials have expressed little interest in the subject. Hilary Snook, an EPA research scientist who has been analyzing pharmaceutical levels in about 45 water samples from Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, said he has yet to receive funding from headquarters for the project. As a result, he said, his office lacks the money to complete the study quickly. 'I don't think there's much political will at all' to tackle the issue, Snook said. 'We should at least look at it. We shouldn't be burying our heads in the sand'."

Why did the reporter not find out and name those "senior agency officials" who have expressed "little interest in the subject." In all likelihood, there is the real story. Find out who those people are and what their background is and you will understand why there is little interest.

But The Washington Post seems to have little interest, too.

Just north of the Washington Post is the home of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore MD. In April 2002, Johns Hopkins University announced a study "aimed at identifying the scope of the nation's prescription drug pollution problems." One of the researchers, after studying the probable environmental concentrations of the 200 most frequently sold and prescribed drugs said she has concluded that anti-depressants, anti-convulsants, anti-cancer drugs and anti-microbials are among the pharmaceuticals most likely to be found at "toxicologically significant levels" in the environment.

All the Washington Post reporter needed to have done is made an internet search using the words PRESCRIPTION DRUG POLLUTION. See what comes up.

Also see my subsequent post and you will have the reason why there is so little interest in finding out about phamaceutical pollution of of water.