The United Kingdom's Environment Agency, the equivalent of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced last month that
the SSRI fluoxetine (Prozac) was being taken in such large
amounts that it was showing up in Britain's drinking water. The
finding was first reported in Britain's the Britain's Drinking
Water Inspectorate noted that the drug "was likely to be found
in a considerably watered down form that is unlikely to pose any
health risk." Nevertheless, environmentalists are calling on the
government to order an urgent investigation and labeling the
slow buildup of the excreted antidepressant into the water a
"hidden mass An environmental spokesperson for the Liberal
Democrat political party in Britain, Norman Baker, told the
Observer, "these revelations expose a failing by the government
on an important public health issue. It is alarming that there
is no monitoring of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues
in our drinking water." Other critics of antidepressant
medication noted that the new