Yesterday I was reading BBC News online (my version of the Sunday paper) and I saw this article about endocrine disruptors, also known as sex-change drugs, found in the Potomac River in DC after scientists from the US Geological Survey found a high level of intersex fish in the waterway.
Now, that’s gross. But there were two parts of the article I found especially interesting:
The first:
“The USGS investigators found pesticides, flame retardants, and personal-care products containing known or suspected endocrine disruptors in all eight sites that were tested.”
And the second:
“Of particular concern was municipal effluent, which contained a cocktail of at least seven compounds containing endocrine disruptors.
“Antibiotics were detected in municipal wastewater, aquaculture, and poultry-processing effluent, with the highest number of antibiotics and the greatest concentrations found in municipal effluent,” the USGS wrote in its report.
So, here’s what this means: The products in your bathroom, your shampoo, your bodywash, your antibiotics, as well as any chemicals you put on your lawn or in your garden, eventually make their way into the city water supply, which then goes into whatever waterway is nearest your city. So do the antibiotics from the farm where that conventional chicken in your refrigerator was raised.
Think about where you live, and where the closest river, lake, stream, or ocean is. For me, that’s the Russian River, and then the Pacific Ocean via the bay. Ted and I swim in those bodies of water. So do our dogs. You may swim in the rivers and lakes near you, or you may live too far away to enjoy them. Either way, what goes into our water affects our country as a whole.
This is why it’s important to read the labels of your bodycare and home care products carefully, using Skin Deep as a resource. Choosing to omit harmful, or even potentially harmful, additives from the products that go down our drains and into the ground isn’t just an abstract concept. It’s not just something you “should do” out of guilt. What goes into our municipal water is real, and it has real effects for Americans and our wildlife.
Also, can you imagine eating this chemically-altered fish? Shudder. If you’re a lover of freshwater fish, watch out. Next time you’re out fishing on the river, check your catch for man-boobs. And if it spontaneously busts into belting out showtunes, you should TOTALLY be suspicious.
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