When Your Fish Have High Blood Pressure & Your Water is Depressed

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I remember reading a couple of years ago about the tap water in California being tainted with multiple medications, the most being Zoloft, an antidepressant at the time (please note I said at the time) the most prescribed antidepressant in America. Then late last year they studied the Redfish found off the coast in Florida, and found seven different pharmaceuticals in every fish they sampled. Think about that: every fish (certainly not every fish period) they picked as a sample had 7 different medications in them, the highest level being a blood pressure medication. We are consuming that stuff, which includes opioids, steroids, antidepressants, blood pressure medicine, antibiotics, and hormone replacement therapy medication. So if you have medication you no longer use, please do not flush it down the toilet. If you don’t feel comfortable keeping medication you no longer use, take it to a police station, or ask your pharmacy about your nearest drug disposal program (a lot of pharmacies will take these meds from you themselves). Hospitals will sometimes also take these medications off your hands. If it is a pain medication your doctor will take it back, and dispose of it themselves. I did this once when I had Tylenol 3, which I no longer took. The doctor put it in a tube with acid, and I got to watch it dissolve, which I actually found interesting. Anyway, this is just a reminder to be careful about what you do with any medication you take, whether it be prescription or over the counter (Acetaminophen is also commonly found in waste water). Do you ever think about what is in your tap water, or the food you eat? After all, the water goes through a treatment process; they just can’t make it 100% “clean”. If you want to read more, a quick search will bring up the many articles about this topic. Some experts say there are safe OTC meds safe to flush, but better safe than sorry. Plus, other experts deny any medication is safe to dispose of that way.