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Birth-control pills poison everyone?
Environmentalists silent on threat from water tainted with estrogen

OK, this is just plain weird and unbelivable, but yet it rings so true...

While environmentalists are usually vocal about perceived threats ranging from pesticides to global warming, there is a silence when it comes to one threat already harming the water supply: hormones from birth-control pills.

According to the National Catholic Register, EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a mountain stream near Boulder, Colo., two years ago.

When they netted 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city's sewer plant, they found 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange "intersex" fish with male and female features.

It's "the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me," university biologist John Woodling told the Denver Post.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56623

I recall reading about the same phemomena in Sydney some 16 years ago in a newsblurb in a magazine.

Perhaps the enviromentalists are just VERY happy for the male fish?

I also recall reading of this in alternative sources years ago. It still hasn't hit the main stream media. I wonder why...

It keeps popping up - but never really gets a lot of attention.

Wondering - I'm not wondering why .....

This quote from the same article rather summarizes the issue, doesn't it? I have read about this in other places too.

In addition to birth control's estrogen, there are other pollutants in tap water. In my area, they include nitrates from the fertilizer used in the farm fileds.

Hence, I only drink bottled water or water that has been filtered at home. I never drink straight tap water if I can help it.

-- John

P.S. What galls me is that just a few days ago, the TV news media in the U.S. were all reporting how bad bottled water is for the environment, because the bottles are made from plastic, they are transported by truck or by ship, etc., and (in one report) that tap water is *healthy*. Sure, I thought, and what about the freaky fish and nitrates in the water . . .

-- John

This is an amazing story. Thank you for posting it. How frightening!

Gordo, who is going out to buy his bottled water

Well if you buy a water cooler from Sam's Club, Lowes, or Home Depot - I am sure there are other places too, and get the five gallon jugs, it really makes a difference. It is funny, everyone that comes here heads for the water cooler, wonder why!

I just buy Brita filters and fill my own bottles.

There is also the larger issue of pharmaceutical wastewater from manufacturer of these pills... one woman's birth control is but a drop in the sewer (albeit a big drop to a boy fish!)... and there is also the issue of the use of some pesticides and some other products that end up in wastewater and that mimic the effects of estrogen in the body (not just the fish body, but our bodies, too).

Why women pump themselves full of unpleasant, unneccessary, and dangerous drugs just to avoid just a little responsibility is beyond me. Moral issues aside, just reading the patient package insert alone should be enough to cause one to say, "Um, this stuff really isn't good for me."

"Why women pump themselves full of unpleasant, unnecessary, and dangerous drugs just to avoid just a little responsibility is beyond me."

When fertility is controlled with a pill, self-control becomes antiquated and then is unnecessary.

Can we trust filtered and bottled water? I remember reading an Ozarka bottle, and saw that, rather than coming from the Ozarks, its water was mainly sourced from the Dallas/Ft. Worth municipality.

Is it even possible to filter out hormones?

You mean like this one...

Published on Thursday, March 4, 2004 by Reuters
Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0304-04.htm

Fair point, Terry.

It's sad some of the drugs they've cooked up for women. Not to be gross, but as an athlete I once had a doctor offer me a pill that would let me delay the inevitable monthly thing so it wouldn't interfere with my performance in a competition. I was appalled. I just shook my head and left and went home and asked my mom for whatever home remedy she had to alleviate the symptoms.

Not every situation in life can be remedied with a potion or a pill. Nor should we try to seek such remedies. And many of the things women are pumping themselves full of to act more like men and that are sold to them as a means of "taking control" of their "own" bodies scare me.

"And many of the things women are pumping themselves full of to act more like men and that are sold to them as a means of 'taking control' of their 'own' bodies scare me."

Exactly!

I would also be concerned with the artificial source for these hormones.

Terry