France is the world's 4th largest consumer of medicines! And if the French buy so many of them, it's because they consume just as much. But these drugs are not completely broken down by the body after they are taken. The residues pass through the faeces and urine and end up in the wastewater, which the treatment plants are unable to treat because they are not equipped to deal with these molecules. Added to this are the thousands of tablets that some people throw down the sink or toilet.

Impacts on the natural environment and health

These residues accumulate in both surface water and groundwater. Almost 4,000 drug molecules are likely to end up in your glass of water... In addition to the risk of unintentionally consuming these medicines and consequently absorbing unwanted active ingredients, even if in low doses, there is the cocktail effect, which we are unable to describe. The mixing of these substances with others already present, such as chemical residues or pesticides, constitutes a real danger, the effects of which we do not know, either in the short term, or even less so in the long term.

Added to this is the problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that come into prolonged contact with antibiotic residues. The medium-term consequences can be dramatic if certain strains of pathogenic bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics that are normally used to treat the pathologies that require them.

Too little research exists and it is very difficult in any case to clarify the situation because the work is so enormous if we have to take into account the interactions between the different molecules, the fauna, the flora... And even then, how can this be reliably reproduced in the laboratory?

There are currently no regulations requiring the verification of drug residues in drinking water. In other words, the issue is far from settled!

While we're waiting for some real in-depth thinking, convincing the pharmaceutical industry to take the environmental consequences into account when developing new drugs, ensuring that doctors only dispense the necessary quantity or dose and not whole boxes, some of which will go unused and be thrown away, and communicating the need to take the ends of boxes back to the pharmacy so that they don't end up in the sink or the bin, there is a solution: drink water purified by a Berkey® system!

Berkey® water filters fitted with their Black Berkey® filters can filter out numerous pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors such as BPA, naproxin, octylphenol, progesterone, THMs and many others. Consult the analyses by following this link.

Have the Berkey® reflex for purer, healthier, more economical and more ecological water!