filed under Activism
Yet Another Reason to Kill Yourself
9:53AM ON
03/10/2008
BY
LiteraryTease
Okay, seriously? This is way messed up. The AP reported today that a survey of the drinking water in 24 major U.S. metropolitan areas revealed traces of drugs like mood stabilizers and sex hormones: AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water.
Sure, the traces were minute, and all of the utility companies insist that the drinking water is safe, but give me a break! Like any utility company worth its salt is going to say “Uh, yeah, looks like the water is unsafe to drink.” Massive panic would ensue.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5apEctKwiD8]
It’s not exactly unexpected, since all that medicine has to go somewhere. With millions of Americans doping themselves up, and with the most common reaction of a doctor to whatever ailment you might name to be a prescription for one drug or another, those drugs go into our systems and then where? That’s right, pissed out into the toilets of America, or on the side streets, and, eventually, into the water we drink. Gross enough for ya?
“‘We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,’ said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” Benjamin Grumbles? Are you kidding me? Is that a made-up name or what?
Sure, it’s a problem! Just like drinking water worldwide is a problem, but try telling that to the average American (i.e. the bottled-water-purchasing-trash-producing-SUV-driving fucks who continue to pop out cute little white-washed American babies). [For example, GE is sponsoring water reclamation projects in San Francisco; you know, to make up for all those gas guzzlers they put out there.]
From mood stabilizers in Jersey (and let’s be honest, those Jersey babes could use a chill pill) to a staggering 56 different types of pharmaceuticals in Philly’s drinking water, all this is telling me is that the world has completely gone to shit. The article says, “The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.” That’s a fuckin’ understatement if I’ve ever heard one.
Here’s the thing: we need water to survive. No one except a complete moron is going to argue that fact. In case you haven’t noticed, water has become big money in recent years. People buy bottled water by the case, companies like Brita and Pur make big bucks selling filters for water that is already supposed to be filtered by our municipalities, and good luck getting a free cup of water that doesn’t taste like it just leaked out of somebody’s ass. Find a fresh water source, you might think you’ve hit jackpot, but no: I’d bet a million bucks that every source of fresh water in the known world is already owned by some big corporation.
In his 2006 article, Why Civilizations Decline, Peter Montague discusses the reasons, duh, why civilizations fall. The biggies center around lack of fresh water, contamination of fresh water, and privatization of fresh water. Some scholars even suggest that the Fall of Rome centered not on overextending the empire, but on contaminated drinking water. Sensing a trend here?
“‘We know we are being exposed to other people’s drugs through our drinking water, and that can’t be good,’ says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.” Yet another understatement. Thanks for nothing, David.
I can’t really blame David for not wanting to take a stand on the issue. See, no one knows what effect these trace chemicals can have on humans. Any pharmaceutical study concerns traditional doses, all in one go, but the impact of a lifetime of trace doses remains to be seen. Is it any wonder more and more people are being diagnosed with cancer each year? Of course not. Looks like we, as humans, are well and truly fucked. Have a nice day.
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