Traces of the anti-depressant drug fluoxitine (known commercially as Prozac) have been found in Britain's drinking water, the UK's Environment Agency reports. The drug is believed to have entered the environment through the urine of people taking the medication, for which 24 million prescriptions are written annually in the country of 60 million.
Britain's Drinking Water Inspectorate has stated that the level of concentration of the drug is too low to have any effect on the public. Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac have recently been implicated in increased suicide rates in teenagers. The Inspectorate says that systems used to remove pesticides in rural areas are being installed nationally to cleanse trace amounts of prescription drugs from the public drinking water.
The Dominion is a monthly paper published by an incipient network of independent journalists in Canada. It aims to provide accurate, critical coverage that is accountable to its readers and the subjects it tackles. Taking its name from Canada's official status as both a colony and a colonial force, the Dominion examines politics, culture and daily life with a view to understanding the exercise of power.