Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hospitals Flush 250 Million Pounds of Expired Drugs Into Public Sewers Every Year

I saw this in NaturalNews recently. On the topic of Antibiotic Resistance, it's no wonder we have SuperBugs like MRSA. Let alone doctors are prescribing antibiotics when they are often not necessary, and our beef and chicken are pumped full of antibiotics, we now have hospitals dumping millions of pounds of old and expired drugs into water every year. This all impacts our body and who's to say exactly how this will all pan out.

Michelle Moore
Microbiologist and Staph Researcher
Learn What Your Doctor Isn't Telling You About Your MRSA Infection

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(NaturalNews) The Associated Press (AP) estimates that hospitals and long-term medical care institutions across the United States are dumping 250 million pounds of pharmacologically active drugs directly into public sewer systems each year.

After adjusting for Minnesota's relatively low rate of prescription drug use and doubling the number to account for the greater waste typically produced by long-term care facilities, the AP concluded that at least 250 million pounds of drug waste and drug-contaminated packaging are thrown away each year. This includes expired or spoiled drugs, leftovers from too-large prescriptions, drugs that are prescribed but not needed, drugs that patients refuse to take or that are halted due to negative side effects, or drugs left over when patients die.

Dumping drugs into water is far from harmless, although the exact nature of the danger remains poorly understood. But scientists agree that drugs remain pharmacologically active even after disposal, and can have severe effects on humans and wildlife. Studies of wastewater near hospitals in Europe and the US have found higher concentrations of antibiotic resistant bacteria and of organisms with genetic mutations similar to those that can cause cancer in humans. Another study on antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone family, including best-seller ciproflaxin, found that these drugs could cause changes to bacterial DNA.

See full article here: Hospitals Flush 250 Million Pounds of Expired Drugs Into Public Sewers Every Year

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