WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 — The latest ACS podcast Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions says it is a misconception that the estrogen hormones detected in drinking water supplies is related to birth control pills.
They descrive results of one new analysis showing that, contrary to popular belief and other studies, birth control pills account for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the drinking water supplies in the United States. The report appears in Environmental Science & Technology.
Amber Wise, Kacie O'Brien and Tracey Woodruff note ongoing concern about possible links between chronic exposure to estrogens in the water supply and fertility problems and other adverse human health effects. Almost 12 million women of reproductive age in the United States take the pill, which contains estrogen, and their urine contains traces of the female sex hormone. Hence, the belief that oral contraceptives are the major source of estrogen in lakes, rivers and streams, the researchers say.
"Our analysis found that the main estrogen in oral contraceptives has a lower predicted concentration in U.S. drinking water than natural estrogens from animal waste, which can be used untreated as a farm fertilizer and from synthetic estrogens, such as industrial sources," Woodruff says in the podcast. "In addition, everyone excretes hormones in their urine, not just women taking the pill. The contribution of oral contraceptives is still relatively small when accounting for its potency."