Pharmaceuticals are now widespread in the environment and are often found in drinking water. Information on risks and side effects is available, but often not accessible. Experts clearly criticize this. Negotiations are now underway at EU level.
Drugs should take effect within the body. After ingestion, however, up to 90% of the ingredients contained are excreted and end up in the waste water. Only some of the substances are collected by sewage treatment plants. Medicines can be found in lakes and rivers and in different doses even in tap water, which is supposed to comply with the Drinking Water Ordinance. According to the Drinking Water Ordinance, however, such substances do not have to be recorded in the test.
Drug manufacturers must conduct environmental and toxicity studies. However, the results are often not sufficiently published. Environmental authorities and the public often have no access to this explosive data. As the environmental magazine GEO reports, effective protection of the water bodies and purity of the drinking water from the pipes is made very difficult by this retention.
Own filtering measures are required
Which water filters are suitable against drug residues?
As long as authorities do not achieve a significant improvement and pharmaceutical companies are not called upon to publish, clarify and eliminate, only consumers have the option of individual precautions. With suitable filter technologies such as reverse osmosis, these substances can be removed from drinking water. The technology of these water filters works like a sieve, in which impurities and such pharmaceutical residues get caught and washed out. The result is the purest drinking water free of any toxins and other impurities. The disadvantage is that reliable water filters with this technology are more expensive than conventional filter jugs or flow filters – which, however, do not reach this level of purity. On the other hand, they represent a purchase for decades, which puts the spending into perspective.
Anyone who wants to use bottled water is not effectively protected either, because according to the Mineral Water Ordinance, fewer substances have to be tested than with drinking water. A family that has been buying and consuming mineral water for years would already have recovered the costs for an effective and future-oriented water filter after 2-3 years. With some mobile devices even much earlier. Against this background, thinking in the medium and long term makes a lot of sense for the health of the family.
Family planning at risk?
Der Spiegel reports: In the Federal Republic around 500,000 men are infertile, every fifth West German marriage remains involuntarily childless. Scientists have now discovered what could also be the reason: A whole range of dangerous chemical compounds, so-called halogenated hydrocarbons, (hydrocarbons are chemical compounds of carbon and hydrogen. If they combine with fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine, one speaks of so-called halogens) or halogenated hydrocarbons.
