Maia Szalavitz
A recent investigative report by the Associated Press has found traces of various medications – ranging from painkillers to sex hormones to antibiotics – in the drinking water of various locations around the country. The report has now sparked Senate hearings over what is to be done.
But what this intensive investigative report lacks is context and clarity. For example, the story said the drugs were found in concentrations ranging from parts per billion to parts per trillion. The distinction between the two is not trivial: Imagine telling someone that they either owed $100,000 $1,000 or $1,000,000. One might be affordable, the other, catastrophic.
And the AP’s reporting doesn’t tell us anything about whether drugs can have effects in such minute quantities. Homeopathic “medicine” is based on the idea that extremely diluted substances can cure illness, but research suggests that any results are limited to the placebo effect. If I drink water with 1 part per billion of codeine in it (say, 1 billionth of a gram or .000000001 grams) but the effective dose is 60 milligrams, I am highly unlikely to get any pain relief – or any side effects. The dose, as they say, is what makes the poison. If it wasn’t, the naturally-occurring chemicals in vegetables would kill us.
The story also doesn’t provide any means of comparison – how many parts per billion of oil or gasoline or other kinds of contaminants (some of this water comes from treated sewage, scary to think about what lurks in parts per trillion levels there!) are normally found in drinking water? The AP cites possibly dangerous effects on fish, but doesn’t note that these could also be due to other pollutants.
After all this, it’s worth pointing out that the New York Times covered this issue much more thoughtfully a while back, here.
Posted by Trevor Butterworth 