Reader Response Draft 4

Iburch (2015) suggested in "Pharmaceutical Disposal" that to prevent contamination of water sources due to "common” pharmaceutical disposal which causes health problems to lives, legislation is helpful. Iburch claims flushing of medications is common and drugs are detected in the water resources of New York State and Connecticut. Studies support his idea by detecting drugs in 80% of water sources tested by an organisation called USGS. Iburch notes water treatment plants cannot filter out the medications. These medications affect aquatic life, especially the amphibians. He mentions studies showing a spawning problem and a drop of fertility in aquatic lives caused by the medications. Iburch believes that to prevent such contamination, safe and convenient medication disposal is the key. Laws such as the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act, which promotes “drug take-back”, have been passed and ways are provided to dispose the drugs safely. However, the causes he listed for the problem are not comprehensive. Furthermore, his claim of an effect of the medication on aquatic life lacks direct evidence to support the validity.

Iburch’s argument is not comprehensive when he talks about the ways to solve the contamination of pharmaceuticals in water. The recommendation of not to flush the pharmaceuticals into the toilet and legislation are the possible ways. However, Iburch does not discuss about the root cause of the problem. For instance, pharmaceuticals may not be used because people purchase them in large amounts unnecessarily. Just to talk about flushing and providing ways for safe disposal are not enough for this situation. Sealing the bags containing pharmaceutical wastes as suggested by scientists from Harvard Medical School (2011) also means that the bags that are not sealed may cause the same problem of contamination even if the pharmaceuticals are not disposed into the water. Furthermore, pharmaceuticals for external application or in skincare products and perfumes (Harvard Medical School, 2011) may be used. These pharmaceuticals may be washed away from the skins, ending up as the contaminants in water. In addition, they are also secreted through human skins or with human waste into the water (Fallik, 2013). In these situations, not to flush the pharmaceuticals into the toilet or legislation for “drug take-back” is not constructive. Therefore, the lack of analysis of the root causes in such a contamination problem fails to give the readers a complete picture of the problem. This makes the argument misleading.

In addition, the data used to show the negative consequences of the pharmaceutical contaminations to the aquatic life is not convincing enough. As suggested by Eisenstadt (2005), the abnormality of the aquatic life can be affected by “weather changes, other chemicals present in the water, temperature fluctuations, and a host of other variables” in an environment without high control. Thus, without data that can show the direct relationship between pharmaceutical contamination and aquatic life, the argument of the author on the water contamination problem is weak.

In sum, despite using data to build the link on how pharmaceutical contaminants are caused and cause other problems, the author should demonstrate a more comprehensive analysis to show the root causes of the pharmaceutical contamination and try to show data demonstrating a more proportional and convincing relationship between the contamination and the environment. However, regardless of whether pharmaceutical disposal practice is a way for such water contamination, the contamination in the water sources is an existing and proven problem.

References

Eisenstadt L. (2005). Drugs in the water. Triplepoint. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.bu.edu/sjmag/scimag2005/features/drugsinwater.htm

Iburch (2013). This New study found more drugs in our drinking water than anybody knew and no one's doing anything about it. The New Republic. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115883/drugs-drinking-water-new-epa-study-finds-more-we-knew

 

Harvard Medical School. (2011). Drugs in the water. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/drugs-in-the-water

Iburch. (2015). Pharmaceutical disposal. Citizens campaign for the Environment. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/pharmaceutical-disposal.asp