Antibiotics & the Water Supply March 11, 2008
Posted by makingyourdashcount in antibiotics, EPA, evolution, pathogens, water supply.1 comment so far
Our pill popping society has infected our water supply with the same antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones that our doctors carefully prescribe to their patients. Bodily discharges combined with unused pills flushed through the system, have filtered into our water supply with alarming test results. AP found containments in our local Ohio water supply, as well as the water supply of 40 million other Americans. “Tests in Columbus found 5 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water and 15 in the city’s watersheds,” according the AP report.
So why is this important?
Our daughter, Sarah, died 3.5 years ago after suddenly going into septic shock. Although under a microscope for an entire year, the “why” she died was never conclusive. Whether it was a systemic problem or a pathogen was never proven. What I do know, is that Children’s Hospital pulled out the big antibiotic guns to try and kill whatever it was that was attacking her. They did not work.
As antibiotics infiltrate society and now water supplies, the pathogens that antibiotics used to kill have evolve to survival. In the meat and eggs we eat to the water we drink, our society’s antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, because we consume them regularly as well as take them, as prescribed. The pathogens they used to easily kill are mutating to superbugs, as seen in this CBS Report.
So what is a society to do?
As doctors have become more prudent in their prescribing of these medications, patients need to take all medication prescribe, as directed.
We need to dispose of left over, unused pills in our landfills, (experts suggest mixing them with coffee grounds,) where they will leach more slowly into the land rather than directly flushing them into our water supply.
Consumers need to be more prudent in the eggs, meat and milk we buy supporting farmers who do not depend on drugs to deliver their products to market.
These steps may seem small, but they may protect the next generation from losing to the antibiotics of last resort.
Science,Evolution,and Creationism January 8, 2008
Posted by makingyourdashcount in creationsim, evolution.6 comments
My daughters went through their high school biology classes at a time when Ohio teachers were required to present intelligent design as part of the science curricula. At the time I winced in the same way I do when getting an inoculation at the doctor’s office. I turned away and squirmed, making sure that I voted wisely for the next state school board opening. Then we discussed the whys and wherefores over the dinner table.
I am so glad to see the National Academy of Sciences come out with the linked publication entitled Science, Evolution and Creationism. I hope that people READ it, to be better informed on this subject. Religion and Science are not in antithesis to eachother; presenting creationism in the classroom teaches children it is an all or nothing relationship, which is wrong.
Just as science or math have no place in a comparative religion class, religious concepts have no place in the science classroom.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11876.html Committee on Revising Science and Creationism:A View from the National Academy of Sciences,National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
Making your Dash Count 