The Israeli government wakes up to concerns about hormones and antibiotics in drinking water.
Last week at Green Prophet, we wrote about how an increase in breast size may be connected to hormones in the water supply. Estrogens in the environment or in our food are implicated in lower sperm counts and higher rate of breast cancers, and antibiotics in the environment could increase the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Israeli lawmaker Dov Chanin, a member of the committee on the environment, is trying to do something about it. The first target is extra, unused drugs that consumers throw into the trash or down the toilet. Ninety percent of the active material in drugs returns to the water system via landfills or sewage.
Whether medications are thrown into the garbage or consumed by patients, they are the source of organic micro-pollutants. Because water treatment systems don’t yet have the technology to filter them out, Israel’s high rate of water recycling for agriculture could be leading to higher and higher concentrations of micro-pollutants. Ultimately humans and animals consume them in the local food and water.
On January 2011, representatives of environmental groups, hospitals, the water board and the health ministry met at the Knesset to discuss the issue. Hospital waste, difficult and expensive to sort, is another source of organic micro-pollutants.
No one in the world has yet developed a standard to measure a safe amount of these micro-pollutants in the water, and the committee recommended more investigation on the topic.
In the meantime, Chanin proposed a law requiring drug stores to collect unused medications for destruction or storage.
In Israel, part of the problem of unused medications is alleviated by private organizations who collect unused and unexpired medications for the poor. Also, since estrogen seems to be such a concern, perhaps other forms of non-hormonal birth control should be encouraged.
More Green Posts on Health:
Brown Rice and Bisli: Why Don’t Consumers Make Healthy Food Choices?
Bisphenol A Disrupts Quality of Eggs Retrieved in IVF Treatment, New Study Demonstrates
Author: Hannah Katsman
Hannah learned environmentalism from her mother, a conservationist before it was in style. Once a burglar tried to enter their home in Cincinnati after noticing the darkened windows (covered with blankets for insulation) and the snow-covered car in the driveway. Mom always set the thermostat for 62 degrees Fahrenheit (17 Celsius) — 3 degrees lower than recommended by President Nixon — because “the thermostat is in the dining room, but the stove’s pilot light keeps the kitchen warmer.” Her mother would still have preferred today’s gas-saving pilotless stoves. Hannah studied English in college and education in graduate school, and arrived in Petach Tikva in 1990 with her husband and oldest child. Her mother died suddenly six weeks after Hannah arrived and six weeks before the first Gulf War, and Hannah stayed anyway. She has taught English but her passion is parental education and support, especially breastfeeding. She recently began a new blog about energy- and time-efficient meal preparation called CookingManager.Com. You can find her thoughts on parenting, breastfeeding, Israeli living and women in Judaism at A Mother in Israel. Hannah can be reached at hannahk (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
