Caring about the environment means caring about our local waterways. Polluted waterways damage ecosystems, harm animals, and are an early sign of impending ecological disaster.
Unfortunately, many people don’t think about how the choices they make in everyday life affect our water quality. Many products used by Americans every day are damaging sensitive fish.
Artificial contraceptives, such as the pill, are a major cause of chemical pollution. A growing concern among scientists is the fact that so many synthetic human hormones are in our water. When women use the pill or other methods of hormonal contraception, it comes out when they urinate – and is flushed into our water system.
The EPA currently sets no standards for synthetic estrogen levels in water but has started investigating the matter. The lack of standards has resulted in many municipalities and water purification plants not even bothering to test for human hormones, and no one really knows how large the problem is. Even if tests were performed, there is no standard way to remove the hormones from the water supply.
Complicating the matter for environmentalists, many respected organizations such as The Sierra Club promote the use of artificial contraception and actively lobby politicians to make the pills more available. This conflict of interest has resulted in many Americans being uninformed about the role these pills play in damaging rivers and streams.
Scientists have documented mutations in fish directly caused by synthetic hormones. Male fish are found to have female sex organs, and sometimes even eggs, which prevents them from spawning. The problem has been documented across America, damaging Washington state salmon populations and hurting fish in the Potomac River.
A more natural method of family planning, such as the Creighton model of fertility, could be used instead, in order to minimize one’s chemical footprint, and encourage healthy waterways.
