Could drugs inadvertently affect you, me, and the creatures of the sea?
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Scientific studies find traces of pharmaceuticals in the water and the air.
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES, March 10, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Recent studies by the US Geological Society and others are reported to have found high concentrations of pharmaceutical drugs down stream from drug-manufacturing plants, even after passing through wastewater treatment.
High concentrations according to Natasha Gilbert of Type Investigations means “in some cases, a thousand times higher than safe levels for wildlife.”
The drug residue can go into the air as left-over powder from the machines in the plants, or when they are washed off, down the drain. “Wastewater treatment plants,” says Gilbert, “are not designed to remove pharmaceuticals.” Blame gets pushed around, with pharmaceutical plants saying it might be hospitals, and vice versa.
Actually, it might be both, and more, including our own toilets if or when we flush left-over drugs. Other research has repeatedly shown that pharmaceuticals can affect wildlife, altering courtship and migration, for example.
Fish are not humans, but they are among God’s living creatures. It’s one thing that mankind is doping itself into reduced procreation and activity, but have we the right to pass our mind-altering pollutants on to the animal kingdom? We are terribly concerned about carcinogenic compounds getting into the water stream. What about life-altering pharmaceuticals?
Is this making too much of a small issue? Well, let’s expand the scope.
Consider: In 2009, The Telegraph published that traces of cocaine and LSD (yes, LSD!) had been found in the air above Spanish cities. And a peer-reviewed comparative study published in Environment International in 2016 reported cocaine and cannabinoids in the atmosphere above Northern European cities .
There are dozens more such articles. It’s not just other creatures we are subjecting to pharmaceutical and illicit drug "waste" (that is, the pharmaceutical waste that we don’t retain in our own bodies.) We are subjecting the people living around us, our children, everyone to having to breathe this stuff, or drink it.
It’s our planet, not someone else’s. It’s our responsibility.
As humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his common sense booklet on moral and ethical behavior, The Way to Happiness, “Man has reached the potential capacity to destroy the planet. He must be pushed on up to the capability and actions of saving it. It is, after all, what we’re standing on.”
The news is full of how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere and its potential effect on global warming. Are we not responding because we’re too stoned breathing in the drug-polluted air of our own communities?
This is not a rhetorical question. Think about it.
“If others do not help safeguard and improve the environment,” says Mr. Hubbard in his potent little book, “the way to happiness could have no roadbed to travel on at all.”
Think of this the next time you are flushing old pharmaceuticals down the toilet: the cod or red snapper you have for dinner next month, what was in the water it lived in?
L. Ron Hubbard wrote The Way to Happiness to restore fundamental morals and values. Entirely nonreligious, its 21 precepts may be used by anyone regardless of race, culture or creed to foster kindness, honesty and the basic skills of living.
A free online E-course covering each of the 21 precepts is available through The Way to Happiness website, which includes the text of the book, the feature-length The Way to Happiness book-on-film and 21 public service announcements illustrating each of the book’s precepts.
The Way to Happiness chapter in metropolitan Washington, DC, distributes copies of the booklets to help disseminate its values and common sense advice to spread happiness and bring awareness of the need to protect our environment.
References:
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787192604/prescription-drugs-found-in-large-concentrations-in-water-near-manufacturing-pla
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/5324427/Cocaine-and-LSD-found-in-air-of-Spanish-cities.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27665117/
Beth Akiyama
Church of Scientology National Affairs Office
+1 202-667-6404
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