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Prozac Found in Britain's Drinking Water

 

Reuters: Sunday August 8, 2004

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Traces of the anti-depressant Prozac have been found in Britain's drinking water supply, setting off alarm bells with environmentalists concerned about potentially toxic effects.

 

 

The Observer newspaper said Sunday that a report by the government's environment watchdog found Prozac was building up in river systems and groundwater used for drinking supplies.

The exact quantity of Prozac in the drinking water was unknown, but the Environment Agency's report concluded Prozac could be potentially toxic in the water table.

Experts say that Prozac finds its way into rivers and water systems from treated sewage water, and some believe the drugs could affect reproductive ability.

A spokesman for Britain's Drinking Water Inspectorate said Prozac was likely to be found in a considerably watered down form that was unlikely to pose a health risk.

"It is extremely unlikely that there is a risk, as such drugs are excreted in very low concentrations," the spokesman said. "Advanced treatment processes installed for pesticide removal are effective in removing drug residues."

But environmentalists called for an urgent investigation into the findings.

Norman Baker, environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said it looked "like a case of hidden mass medication upon the unsuspecting public."

"It is alarming that there is no monitoring of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues in our drinking water," he told the Observer.

The Environment Agency has held a series of meetings with the pharmaceutical industry to discuss any repercussions for human health or the ecosystem, the Observer said.

Prescription of anti-depressants has surged in Britain. In the decade up to 2001, overall prescriptions of antidepressants rose from 9 million to 24 million a year, the paper said.

 

Source: Yahoo News

 

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Mercury and Water

by

Mark Sircus, Ac., OMD

 

"There is no other pollutant [than mercury] out there that has anywhere near this high a percentage of the U.S. population with exposure levels above the government’s  health advisory levels. Not lead, not arsenic, nothing."                                                                                   

Richard Maas    Environmental Quality Institute

Mercury has spread out into the atmosphere, soils, lakes, rivers and into the oceans where it gains strength and toxicity through the process of methylation. Radioactivity tends, with the passing of many years, to lower in toxicity but mercury runs up the hill to more toxic levels with the help of fish, mammals and bacteria.

Mercury bio-accumulates and under goes bio-magnification. The term bioaccumulation refers to the net accumulation over time of metals within an organism from both biotic (other organisms) and abiotic (soil, air, and water) sources. The term bio-magnification refers to the progressive build up of some heavy metals (and some other persistent substances) by successive trophic levels – meaning that it relates to the concentration ratio in a tissue of a predator organism as compared to that in its prey.  

Top predatory fish, like a tuna, can easily have  sequestered in its flesh methylmercury levels that are a million times higher than the water it swam in.                                                                          Dr. Sandra Steingrabera  

    In the next ten years we will pollute the world with approximately another sixty to ninety thousand tons of mercury after already adding over 600 thousand tons during the past century.  The real problem with mercury, even the mercury we excrete from our bodies that we ourselves are absorbing from our dental fillings, the air we breathe, water we drink and the food we eat, is that it does not leave the environment. It keeps bioaccumulating building in concentration each year.

 

Fish around the world are showing dangerous levels of mercury threatening one of mankind’s basic supplies of protein with lakes,  rivers and even the deep ocean badly contaminated with mercury.

 

     States issued warnings for mercury and other pollutants in 2003 for nearly 850,000 miles of U.S. rivers — a 65% increase over 2002 — and 14 million acres of lakes. The warning level is the highest ever reported by the EPA. It is partly a result of states taking a more aggressive role in monitoring for mercury, according to environmental officials. The problem is getting worse and each year the earth comes closer to reaching a saturation point where the entire situation will seriously deteriorate. The huge tonnage of mercury put into the environment each day is adding to an already critical situation. Considering that mercury is an accumulative poison with delayed effects or a lag time measured in years, we can see that humanity has created a time bomb that is ticking while even more mercury is added. Ignorance of mercury’s toxicity has led us as individuals and as a society into dangerous waters and collectively it threatens us with premature death and years of chronic illness.

 

  Current average precipitation mercury levels are on the order of 2-4 times greater than pre-industrial levels based on information on the increases in mercury deposition rates (Swain et al., 1992; Expert Panel on Mercury Atmospheric Processes, 1994).

 

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                         Source. 1997 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress Volume 3

We have just reached the crisis level on mercury. Now, we're finding  it in our food, our water, our soil, our babies, everywhere.                                                                           Marie Steinwachs                                                                                             University of Missouri

   All of these increases that involve the sea are mirrored on land. Drinking water is a good place to see the extent of the disaster in the making. The EPA reports that mercury levels in tap drinking water in the United States ranges anywhere between 0.3 to 25 ng/L (NJDEPE 1993) but some wells were tested up to and exceeding 2000 ng/L (Dooley 1992). In general Mercury measured in surface fresh water around the world ranged from 0.04 to 74 ng/L in lakes and 1-7 ng/L in rivers and streams (NJDEPE 1993). These are all old numbers and it is anyone’s guess as to current concentrations in water supplies. Mercury from air and soil provides the main source of mercury to water bodies and fish. Mercury is very slowly removed from soil, and long after anthropogenic emissions are reduced, soil and water concentrations can be expected to remain elevated. 

 

mercury_water

 

                 Source. 1997 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress Volume 3

 

     Though it is critical to the future of humanity to understand the changes in mercury concentration levels in the deep sea there is a scarcity of information on the subject. The highest number that has been quoted for increases of mercury concentrations in the marine environment is 3.5 to 4.8% per year,[i] though 1.5 percent increase per year is generally the number that yields some level of acceptance. By considering the current global mercury budget and estimates of pre-industrial mercury fluxes, Mason et al. (1994) estimate that total emissions have increased by a factor of 4.5 since pre-industrial times, which has subsequently increased the oceanic reservoirs by a factor of 3. Rolfus and Fitzgerald (1995) made the obvious conclusion that increases in the deposition of mercury that result from increases in anthropogenic emissions will result in enhanced food chain bioaccumulation and higher concentrations of mercury in marine fish. Estuaries and coastal regions obviously are more highly affected by anthropogenic mercury sources. Current average precipitation mercury levels are on the order of 2-4 times greater than pre-industrial levels based on information on the increases in mercury deposition rates (Swain et al., 1992; Expert Panel on Mercury Atmospheric Processes, 1994). Anthropogenic emissions are currently thought to account for between 40-75% of the total annual input to the global atmosphere (Expert Panel on Mercury Atmospheric 3-2 Processes, 1994; Hovart et al., 1993b).

mercury_water

                                                                                    

Source. 1997 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress Volume 3

 

    The amount released into the air, water and soilhas increased greatly since pre-industrial timesbecause of industrial air emissions, water discharges and thecombustion of mercury-containing fuels.[ii] Most of this releasedmercury ends up in soils and waterways, where it is methylatedby microbes to form methylmercury, which then accumulates inthe tissues of predatory fish and mammals. Mercury levels in the environment have been rising but the exact numbers are not clear.  A 1996 EPA report to Congress said that mercury levels in the environment had increased 2-5 fold over the last century and 1.5% per year since 1970. The deep ocean is little understood due to sparse observations but mercury levels appear to be rising there though it is understood that concentrations of mercury in the deep sea are more from natural sources than man made sources. The most reliable indication of mercury levels in the sea are the changes being noticed in the large fish that live the longest and also by sea birds. In such birds mercury levels have increased from a range of 0.4 to 1.8 parts per million before 1860 to 6 to 25 parts per million between 1970 and 1980 which represents an increase of 1400 %.[iii]

     Researchers have found mercury levels in the whales of the belugas went up four-fold during the 1990s. Mercury levels are three to four times higher in beluga whales in the Western Arctic compared to the small, white whales farther east according to Eric Braekevelt of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Winnipeg Canada.[iv] He stated that, "There's some speculation that it might be coming from the Mackenzie River," As one of the largest river systems in the world, the Mackenzie drains much of Canada, and there is significant industrial development in parts of the watershed. In Australia researchers studying dolphins have noted that inshore dolphins had mercury levels on average 14 times greater than dolphins living offshore in the Southern Ocean. They are reporting that record levels of mercury have been found in dozens of dead dolphins recovered from South Australia's Spencer and St Vincent gulfs. Toxicology research on 114 bottlenose dolphins by Adelaide University student Nicole Butterfield has found the mercury level of one dolphin to be four times higher than Australia's previous worst case. The dolphin contained 1900 micrograms of mercury per gram and was retrieved near Point Riley, on the Spencer Gulf and just south of the industrial town of Port Pirie. An adult female found dead in 1998 recorded the highest mercury level for a bottlenose dolphin at 465 mcg per gram. In Japan it has been reported that in some cases the levels of mercury in dolphin and whale meat sneakily sold there are 1,600 times the allowed quantities in meat for human consumption.

    According to Dr. Tetsuya Endo, at the University of Hokkaido, two of the 26 whale liver samples examined contained over 1970 micrograms of mercury per gram of liver. That is nearly 5000 times the Japanese government's limit for mercury contamination (0.4 micrograms per gram) or an incredible 20,000 times the USEPA limit of 0.1 microgram per gram. More average concentrations of mercury in whale and dolphin livers were 370 micrograms per gram, 900 times the government limit. Average levels in kidneys and lungs were also high, about 100 times the limit. Endo's team has shown that rats suffered acute kidney poisoning after a single mouthful of the most highly contaminated liver. While levels were lower in muscle, Dr. Endo said in a draft paper accepted for publication in The Science of the Total Environment, "Acute intoxication could result from a single ingestion."[v]

    All of this tells us there is mercury in the water, not just the ocean but in the glass you drink possibly, certainly in all the rivers, lakes and streams. It is the toxin in the environment that we must be most concerned about for it is the most toxic. Mercury is building up all around us and we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones from it as much as possible. It is not enough just to avoid the mercury using dentists nor the thimerosal using doctors. We got to take it out of our water. To filter out everything but the mercury, the most toxic substance, would be more than foolish.

Note:

To learn more about removing mercury from your water, return here:

 https://cleanairpurewater.com/mercury.html  

[i] United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, June 2003, The National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories: Summary of 2002 Data, EPA-823-F-00-20,www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/ ; & U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Mercury Update: Impact on Fish Advisories-Fact Sheet, http://www.epa.gov/ost/fish/mercury.html; & New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Environment Committee Mercury Action Plan, June 1998.

[ii] Pilgrim W, Poissant L, Trip L. The Northeast States and Eastern Canadian Provinces mercury study: a framework for action. Summary of the Canadian chapter. Sci Total Environ 2000;261: 177-84

[iii] Finch, Bill. Raines, Ben. Mercury ‘myth’ persists despite facts. Mobile Register. 12/23/01http://www.al.com/specialreport/mobileregister/?merc22.html

[iv] CBC News. Scientists investigate high mercury levels in Arctic belugas. Fri, 20 Aug 2004 (link expired)

[v] The New Scientist, June 02, 2002 

 

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James P McMahonEcologist

"What's in YOUR Water?"

 To view my experience and credentials:

JPM Biography

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Sweetwater, LLC

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www.cleanairpurewater.com

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(C) 2004

 

 

Sweetwater Healthy Home Environments, LLC 375 Cedar Tree Drive, Brookside, UT 84782

Why is Indoor Air Quality Important?

    Every year at least 6,000 new chemical compounds are developed. 

Many are used indoors every day, at home and at work. Add to these pollutants the mold, mildew, bacteria, viruses, tobacco smoke, grease, pollen, dirt, asbestos, lead and numerous other contaminants that can affect our breathing and our health. Then allow them to circulate in today's nearly airtight indoor environment. No wonder our indoor air is, on average, two to ten times as polluted as the worst outdoor air.

    Viruses and bacteria that thrive in the ducts, coils, and recesses of building ventilation systems have been proven to cause ailments ranging from influenza to tuberculosis. Some HVAC systems have been found to contain up to 27 species of fungi.

    Based on information given at the First Annual Air Quality convention sponsored by EPA, April 1992, Tampa, Florida:

 •  40% of all buildings pose a serious health hazard due to indoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.

 •  EPA estimates an 18% annual production loss to American business due to poor indoor air quality.

 • 20% of all employees have a major illness related to indoor air pollution such as allergies, asthma, auto-immune diseases, etc.

 •  EPA says high levels of formaldehyde cause cancer.  Those air fresheners that you buy in your grocery store, the little plug in type, give off formaldehyde.

 • Scientists now recognize that pollutants, even at acceptable concentration, combined together in an indoor environment have a synergistic negative effect.

 

Indoor Air Quality and Ozone

    The air we breathe is made up of mostly oxygen and nitrogen. Ozone can be made from common oxygen and high electrical discharge (as in a thunderstorm). The high voltage discharge (also known as corona discharge) breaks the two oxygen (O2) atoms apart. These oxygen atoms are extremely reactive and they recombine in groups of three with the resulting molecule being called Ozone (O3) or trivalent oxygen. When this highly reactive O3 molecule floats in the environment it actively seeks out pollutant molecules. One of the atoms from the O3 molecule will attach itself to the pollutant molecule and destroy it.

    This highly reactive quality of ozone is why it is such a powerful and efficient cleaner and purifier. Ozone will react with almost anything, including chemical sources of unpleasant or hazardous indoor odors. Bacteria, mold and mildew, pet odors, many cooking odors, etc., are destroyed when they react with ozone. Like chemical pollutants, the membranes or shells of bacteria contain unsaturated molecules which are destroyed by ozone. Without its protective membrane or shell, the bacterium dies, leaving only oxygen. The same applies to viruses and fungi.

    One of the most important properties of ozone is that it has a very short life span. This life span is called a "half-life". The half-life of ozone is approximately 20-30 minutes. This means that half of the ozone created will break down and return to oxygen in approximately 20-30 minutes depending on temperature, humidity and the amount of contaminants in the air or on surfaces that the ozone has to counteract. In other words, strong odors or pollutants will use more ozone and light odors will require less. If ozone can not find a contaminant to work on, it simply reverts to oxygen.

 

OZONE and CONTAMINANTS Ozone can be effective against:  Chemicals Combustion Germs Odors Cooking Odors Garbage Odors Menthol Onions Hospital Odors Sewer Gases Asphalt Fumes Butane  Aged Manuscripts Cigarette Smoke  Exhaust Fumes  Food Odors  Creosote Garlic Mildew Paint Odors Industrial Wastes Toluene Bacteria Poultry Odors Dead Animals Gasoline Fecal Odors Carbon Monoxide Kerosene Viruses Mold Fungi Algae Acrylic Acid Bathroom Smells Propane Decaying Odors Formaldehyde Fertilizer Tetrachloride Lactic Acid Adhesive Gases Moth Balls Furniture Odors Ammonia Coal Smoke Benzene Rancid Oils Diesel Fumes Carbolic Acid Fire Odors Carpet Odors Lubricating Oils Alcohol Naphtha Gangrene Animal Odors Ethyl Alcohol Body Odor Resins Ether Anesthetics Fish Odors Charred Materials Medicinal Odors Flood Odors Nicotine Burned Food Odors    Negative Ions Pollutants and Health

    Ionization or negative ion generation is often referred to as the "thunderstorm effect". It is well known that prior to a thunderstorm, animals and even many humans feel nervous, jittery and irritable; however, after the storm there seems to be a feeling of calm. Both animals and humans experience this phenomena. Most people can not explain this renewed sense of well-being. However, there is a logical explanation. All of this is due to the amount of negative ions in the air around us.  Prior to a thunderstorm there is a very high concentration of positive ions in the air. These tend to be pollutants such as dust, bacteria, pollen, chemicals, etc. The storm releases electrical discharges consisting of high concentrations of negative ions. Negative ions destroy many of these air pollutants and, therefore, give us a sense of well being. When relatively too many positive ions are present in the air before a storm, the positive charge is transferred in the air you breathe from your lungs to the blood, causing the blood platelets to release a hormone that quite strongly affects your moods, your joints, and other physiological functions in your body.

    Ions are floating in the air around us all the time and have either negative or positive charges on them. Changes in their concentration, or in the ratio of positively to negatively charged molecules can have remarkable effects on plants and animals. It is known in science that ion depletion is the source of a wide range of human health problems, both mental and physical. Air ions are important to you because if there are a high proportion of negative ions you will feel lively, uplifted, and enthusiastic. Too many positive ions will have you feeling depressed, lethargic and full of aches, pains and complaints. In general, exposure to negatively ionized air has been shown to increase oxygenation of the lungs, vital capacity, and ciliary activity. All types of beneficial responses take place as a result of these friendly ions.

    Fortunately through modern technology it is possible to control the electrical state of our indoor environments by generating negative ions back in the air. These negative ions attach themselves to airborne toxins and drop them to a surface. Ions basically take out the larger pollutants in the air. For example, ozone will eliminate the smell of smoke in the room and neutralize the chemicals.  Negative ions remove the smoke itself.

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Sweetwater's Indoor Air Purifiers

Virgin River Restoration in Zion National Park

 

The riparian forest in Zion Canyon is dying of old age

Cottonwood trees are not reproducing in Zion Canyon because of a levee (aka revetment or rip rap) installed during the late 1930s to prevent flooding. Turns out that cottonwoods reproduce by dropping seed on wet soil from spring floods. So the flood protection project eliminating cottonwood reproduction. The remaining trees are getting old as they all date back to before this project. In 2001 I led a study, under the auspices of Grand Canyon Trust, to anaylyze the problem and develop restoration alternatives.

 

 

Virgin River Restoration in Zion National Park

 

Here I am in May 2016 shooting video while standing on top of the problematic revetment. The river is on the left and the floodplain is on the right, clearly separated by the revetment.

This video describes the problem with the trees in Zion Canyon:

 

 

You may read that study here: The Potential For Restoration Along The Virgin River in Zion National Park

 

 

 

 

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