Reclaimed Waste Water is Turning Fresh Produce Into Invisible Bipolar Drugs
Most people don’t wish for forced medication, doled out through their vegetable and fruit intake.
Did you know that much of our so-called conventional crops are fertilized with sewage or irrigated with reclaimed waste water? And did you know that it’s possible that you’re eating detectable levels of mood-stabilizing drugs through your produce?
Proof of Concept Study Demonstrates Levels of Carbamazepine in Produce
A new study by an expert team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center shows that eating vegetables and fruits grown in soils irrigated with reclaimed wastewater exposes consumers to minute quantities of carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug commonly detected in wastewater run-offs.
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Carbamazepine is an anti-epileptic drug that is also used as a mood-stabilizer to treat bipolar disorder. It works by decreasing nerve impulses that cause seizures and pain. It can cause serious blood problems or a life-threatening skin rash – pretty much any health issue involving organs should be brought to the attention of a doctor before taking. Given the poor reviews by people who have taken it, is this really something that should be in the global food supply?
The researchers said that the drug was “ubiquitously detected in reclaimed wastewater, highly persistent in soil, and taken up by crops.” The study published in Environmental Science and Technology is the first to directly address exposure to such pharmaceutical contaminants in healthy humans.
Research co-author Prof. Benny Chefetz said:
Israel is a pioneer and world leader in reuse of reclaimed wastewater in the agriculture sector, providing an excellent platform to conduct such a unique study.
Lead researcher Prof. Ora Paltiel, Director of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine commented:
In a randomized controlled trial we have demonstrated that healthy individuals consuming reclaimed wastewater-irrigated produce excreted carbamazepine and its metabolites in their urine, while subjects consuming fresh water-irrigated produce excreted undetectable or significantly lower levels of carbamazepine.
From a press release:
The study followed 34 men and women divided into two groups. The first group was given reclaimed wastewater-irrigated produce for the first week, and freshwater-irrigated vegetables in the following week. The second group consumed the produce in reverse order.
The volunteers consumed the produce, which included tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce, according to their normal diet and drank bottled water throughout the study to neutralize water contamination.
The researchers measured carbamazepine levels in the fresh produce and in the participants’ urine. To begin with, the urinary levels of carbamazepine differed in their quantifiable concentration, with some participants having undetectable levels. Following seven days of consuming reclaimed water-irrigated produce, all members of the first group exhibited quantifiable levels of carbamazepine, while in the second group the distribution remained unchanged from baseline. Levels of carbamazepine excretion were markedly higher in the first group versus the second.
Prof. Paltiel added:
Treated wastewater-irrigated produce exhibited substantially higher carbamazepine levels than fresh water-irrigated produce.
It is evident that those who consume produce grown in soil irrigated with treated wastewater increase their exposure to the drug. Though the levels detected were much lower than in patients who consume the drug, it is important to assess the exposure in commercially available produce.
“This study demonstrates ‘proof of concept’ that human exposure to pharmaceuticals occurs through ingestion of commercially available produce irrigated with treated wastewater, providing data which could guide policy and risk assessments,” said Prof. Chefetz.
Two years ago, Whole Foods came under fire for being caught using produce from crops treated with “biosolids” – a propaganda term for human sewage sludge. The book Toxic Sludge is Good For You! blew the lid on the practice. The incident revived interest in the practice and in choosing organic. Although people like to defend the practice saying that all germs are killed – that simply isn’t true, especially when it comes to stomach flu. Plants can take up drugs, heavy metals and other things that come from human waste.
Scared into Scarcity
Even though it is now 2016, the world’s people are being tricked into believing that there aren’t enough resources going around. But much of this propaganda comes from billionaire depopulation fanatics, Malthusian UN measures and countless influential NGOs.
Just one example involves depopulation fanatic Bill Gates saying that he drank a glass of his own filtered urine in an effort to influence people to repurpose waste. Yes, one of the richest “philanthropists” in the world wants you to drink your recycled toilet-poop water, instead of focusing on the myriad innovative startups trying to utilize a globe full of water.
Gardaloo! on You
In medieval times, if you heard someone shout “gardaloo!” you would make like shrapnel and get out of the way. That’s because this term was the only warning street people heard before the occupant of a building dumped chamber pots containing human waste out of the window – and right into the streets. Perhaps it came from the French term: garde à l’eau! (look out for the water). In fact, it is this very practice that gave rise to the perfume industry. The lucky ones who could afford a leather glove or cloth soaked with essential oil and fat could hold up their “nose-gay” and momentarily escape the extreme city stench.
It is only very recently that modern civilizations (since Rome) stopped hugging their waste. We have so much to thank modern plumbing for – namely, the drastic and immediate drop in disease! The idea of reduced water resources is a fabricated lie to get people acclimated to restrictions and move them around in order to hoard resources. There is no reason at all that we have to eat or drink our own waste – so why do we keep coming back to that?
Who is gardaloo-ing you?
Photo credit: Stuck in Customs via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
This article (Reclaimed Waste Water is Turning Fresh Produce Into Invisible Bipolar Drugs) can be republished with attribution to Heather Callaghan and Natural Blaze.com.
Heather Callaghan is an independent researcher, natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com. Like at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
