When talking about water pollutions, we mostly heard of rubbish and chemical waste dumping. There is one thing that we might neglected, which is drugs disposal. In Malaysia, the water are still safe for consume at the moment, as the drugs detected in the water is within minor level.
You might think that the drugs pollutions is caused by the corporation out there, but you could be the one that actually caused them. We usually dispose the expired or unfinished medicine incorrectly, whether into the toilet or into the dustbin. There are places in Malaysia that offer to collect these medicine and dispose it at the right place. It is a crucial issue, as disposing the medicine incorrectly will cause the river polluted, and lead back to us through the household tap. Also, our current water treatment equipment is unable to filter out these drugs.
Drugs polluted water contains Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals – EDCs, which interfere human body’s hormones, which increase the risk of adverse health outcomes, including cancer, reproductive impairment, cognitive deficits, and obesity.
How does it really affect us if we continuously consume the water with EDCs? In fact, it takes long time for EDCs to show the effects, hence, it doesn’t mean safe to drink water with EDCs. Antibiotics as example, the effects might not work if intake regularly, which also known as antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a long term issue, but other drugs may react faster, and affected not only human.
The ecosystem in the ocean could be affected, as the drugs disrupted the fishes hormone by turning them to opposite sex. For example, he male fish will display their characteristic of female instead, and also attracted to the same sex. Due to the imbalance natures, they have hard time on catching food, and even problem on procreation.
In order to enjoy safe water, we should also take care of the water source at the same time. Installing whether indoor water filter or outdoor water filter can further eliminated unwanted harmful substances that occurred during the distribution to our house.
