OH MY GOD HA.
HAHAHAHAHAHA omg11, I found the BEST EFFING CASE STUDY EVER online. The link is here. It's a case study called "Precarious Toilets" and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard reading a paper.
Or you can just read my Letter to the Editor. This is part of my midterm. I'm going to hell.
To the Editor:
Well, don’t flush your birth control-you’ll end up with transsexual fish.
I’m not even kidding. Though flushing pharmaceuticals down the pipes is an intuitive move, it turns out our sewage treatment plants don’t process medicine very well, and the chemicals remain whole and effective on wildlife. One problem arises from women disposing of contraceptive patches in the toilets. Designed to replace an easy-to-skip Pill, “The Patch” contains a large amount of ethinylestradiol, an estrogen-like drug which works to inhibit the actual hormone (the fancy word is “endocrine disruptor”) and prevent ovulation. After a period of three weeks, when the patch is no longer useful and must be thrown away, a large amount of ethinylestradiol still remains, and ends up in the toilet and eventually in our waterways.
The problem with our medicines is that they work. Manufactured with knowledge of universal chemical and biological makeup, they do the same things to other species as they do to us. Hormones are identical throughout the food chain. And estrogen has pretty much the same effect on other animals as it does on us: In Minnesota, Dr. Deb Swackhamer (again, no joke) found a bunch of male fish who were allegedly changing sex. They were all located downstream from sewage treatment plants, through which passed estrogen-like drugs such as ethinylestradiol.
It’s not funny (okay, it is, but environmentally-speaking it’s not so good). Our methods for disposal of hazardous substances that we’ve manufactured, for our own benefit, have proved pretty ineffective. So please be aware of how connected we are.
Respect the fish. Don’t flush your birth control.
Sincerely,
Helen A.
I'm in a better mood now. Sorry for spamming your friendspages.
Or you can just read my Letter to the Editor. This is part of my midterm. I'm going to hell.
To the Editor:
Well, don’t flush your birth control-you’ll end up with transsexual fish.
I’m not even kidding. Though flushing pharmaceuticals down the pipes is an intuitive move, it turns out our sewage treatment plants don’t process medicine very well, and the chemicals remain whole and effective on wildlife. One problem arises from women disposing of contraceptive patches in the toilets. Designed to replace an easy-to-skip Pill, “The Patch” contains a large amount of ethinylestradiol, an estrogen-like drug which works to inhibit the actual hormone (the fancy word is “endocrine disruptor”) and prevent ovulation. After a period of three weeks, when the patch is no longer useful and must be thrown away, a large amount of ethinylestradiol still remains, and ends up in the toilet and eventually in our waterways.
The problem with our medicines is that they work. Manufactured with knowledge of universal chemical and biological makeup, they do the same things to other species as they do to us. Hormones are identical throughout the food chain. And estrogen has pretty much the same effect on other animals as it does on us: In Minnesota, Dr. Deb Swackhamer (again, no joke) found a bunch of male fish who were allegedly changing sex. They were all located downstream from sewage treatment plants, through which passed estrogen-like drugs such as ethinylestradiol.
It’s not funny (okay, it is, but environmentally-speaking it’s not so good). Our methods for disposal of hazardous substances that we’ve manufactured, for our own benefit, have proved pretty ineffective. So please be aware of how connected we are.
Respect the fish. Don’t flush your birth control.
Sincerely,
Helen A.
I'm in a better mood now. Sorry for spamming your friendspages.