The Effects Of Pharmaceuticals

Programs that encourage people to drop off their unused medications serve two purposes, they keep unused drugs out of the water and prevent redirection of drugs such as opioid painkillers for illegal purposes. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented new guidelines to discourage hospitals and nursing homes from flushing unused drugs down the drain or toilet and for individuals to discontinue flushing most, but not all, unused drugs. These efforts by the EPA comes at a time when pharmaceuticals and personal care products are increasing at an alarming rate, will it be enough to keep our waters safe?

In Peter Gleick’s “Selling Bottled Water: The Modern Medicine Show” and Cynthia Barnett’s “Business in a Bottle”, bottled water is argued to be an excessive commodity falsely advertised as healthier and more beneficial than tap water to society and the environment. Both authors discuss that bottled water is actually equivalent in quality to tap water and in some cases even more hazardous to the human body. Public water itself is a less expensive resource that is more accessible to the masses. However, due to fraudulent companies focused on profit and the lack of effective oversight, people are deterred from realizing that there does not need to be an alternative to municipal water. Gleick

Although not everything is bad about prescribed medication. There are some positive effects to go with taking prescribed medication. One of them is that when you take physician endorsed medications, they can frequently be the response forever undermining conditions including hypertension, elevated cholesterol or much malignancy. These medications fortify and imitate a well-working body, so there are various individuals whose lives are spared every day on account of doctor prescribed medications. Without them, they would have a lower personal satisfaction and even hazard demise. Not all medications are utilized to treat genuine illnesses. Some treat little illnesses every once in a while with extraordinary achievement. Anti-toxins for diseases,

Before we can solve this issue we need to fully understand what the problems are. A drug that once freed us from pain might now become the root cause (Scharff and Taite). Your body learns to build up a tolerance to the medication and then you can no longer get the relief you need. Then causing you to need more and more medication to get the same effects, which contributes to becoming addicted (Scharff and Taite). When you abuse prescription drugs you are doing incredibly terrible damage to not only your mental health but you are harming your body greatly. The medical consequences range from, chronic migraines all the way to a heart attack. More serious effects are lung or cardiovascular diseases, stroke, cancer, mental disorders, long-lasting changes in the brain “Addiction and Health”. Less serious

There are many types of major drugs in use today and on the top of the list is prescription drugs. According to Drug and Society vicodin is the most misused prescribed narcotic in the United States (Glen R. Hanson, March 5, 2014). They say in 2011 was one of the prescription and most often used by teenagers (Glen R. Hanson, March 5, 2014). Vicodin associated with hydrocodone and acetaminophen it is in a class of drugs called narcotic analgesics a schedule II drug. It is used to relieve pain. It is important to study drugs in our society because of scientific developments, we now know more about how prescription drugs effect on the brain. Furthermore we know that drug addiction can be effectively treated to aid people stop misusing drugs and lead happy lives.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for regulating and overseeing the effective distribution of clean tap water. Even though, history has shown instances of water contamination, it is only normal that such incidents occur. The EPA has set procedures for monitoring the municipal waterworks and from their regulated activities, quick resolution for thresholds are achieved (Lewis 1). However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), subsequently setting inferior standards for fundamental

In the United States, approximately 20% of 30-day hospital readmissions are due to inconsistent transition of care (TOC).5, 13 This means the expenditure of billions of unnecessary dollars that could have been prevented if the patients had received proper, coordinated, and consistent care from discharge back to the community. In fact, Medicare reports show more than 17 billion dollars a year are spent on preventable readmissions, leading cause being improper medication usage after discharge.1 Up to 2% of these medication discrepancies were life-threatening and even led to death.7 Medication discrepancies often occur when patients have a lack of understanding of discharge medication plans, inadequate literacy to understand the dismissal notes, become nonadherent to medication regimen, and/or experience adverse drug events.8, 11 Expanding community pharmacists’ involvement in post-discharge TOC and improving communication will benefit patients, healthcare providers, and the healthcare system through decreased hospital readmission, medication related adverse events, and financial burden.

Environmentalists all over the nation highly discourage flushing prescription drugs down the toilet in fear of contaminating the water supply. Although the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) states on their website that flushing certain medications down the toilet is the best option in fear of children, or young adults getting into the potentially harmful prescription drugs… Environmentalists say otherwise. In fact, the Ohio Environmental Council warns that there are many studies supporting their argument that flushing the medication is harmful to the water supply. Studies state that the amount of prescription drugs being found in waterways is creating issues such as the reproductive health of different fish even completely feminizing male fish.

For some people, drugs are a part of everyday life. Drugs are what allow them to be able to walk around in the mornings with no ache, or comfort the pain of a recent surgery, or help and individual cope with anxiety or stress; however, the same drugs that are used to bring enjoyment into one persons life can bring destruction into another. This has become a major problem in the U.S. and all over the world as well. In a recent survey, thirty different clinics, spread out over five urban areas, reported that thirty-six percent of admitted patients has admitted to the nonmedical use of prescription drugs over the past year (Brown, Chaitkin, 1981); consequently, prescription pain killers have lead to more deaths that than heroin and cocaine combined (CDC, 2013).

Every 14 minutes, a person is killed by prescription drugs -- and unlike most other causes of preventable death, which have been on the decline for years, medication-induced deaths are on the upswing across the US. According to a recent analysis conducted by the Los Angeles Times (LA Times), drug-induced deaths have become so prevalent that their average yearly total now exceeds the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents. It is truly a sad day in the world when the very medications prescribed for treating disease are one of the leading causes of death, including among young children. And based on data retrieved by the LA Times, the number of drug fatalities has doubled within the past ten years, as legal drugs now kill nearly 38,000 Americans

America is making profit out of prescription drugs, being the wealthiest country, people in America should not live in fear that they would go bankrupt or die if they cannot afford the drugs. Drug companies need to stop being greedy, selfish, and uncaring. These drugs are expensive, however, many Americans cannot afford these prices. The increasing cost of prescription drugs in the United States has become a source of concern for million of patients. They are taking advantage of innocent elders, consumers are unable to purchase prescription drugs, and the pharmaceutical industry is contributing to the high price of prescription drugs. This issue is important to me because I am planning to go into the pharmaceutical industry. I want people to

The use of prescription drugs has significantly increased over the years and has become one of the leading epidemics due to the fact that prescription drugs are not illegal. The idea is that prescription drugs are given to you by a doctor, so it must be acceptable to do them right? Wrong. Opioid pain killers have led to more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined, and have been known to ruin people’s lives. After watching the video clips regarding prescription drugs, I have learned a lot of information and have a whole new insight. My reaction and what I found most shocking changed as I watched both of the videos. Before observing the clips, I would have never imagined prescription drug use to be so corrupt and wide spread.

It is estimated that 90 percent of the medications that people take is excreted through their urine. That is why sewer systems are filled with prescription drugs.

The chirality of drugs has become important to understand in the field of medicine and pharmacology today. Asymmetric approaches have been under investigation to synthesize chiral centers or separate enantiomers of chiral molecules using chemical catalysts or enantioselective enzymes. With this is in mind, the experiment performed in lab today exhibits the use of an enzyme catalyzed reduction to fashion a chiral center.

Every day Americans depend on public water systems to treat and deliver over 44 billion gallons of water to homes daily (“Importance of Clean Water”). However, Americans