Last week, the Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would begin an unprecedented study of America’s drinking water. Rather than screen water for a few select chemicals, the study’s non-targeted analysis will screen for a broad range of over 1400 chemicals, including two drugs used in chemical abortions – mifepristone and misoprostol.
A study released last July sampled the water of three cities for the anti-progesterone drug mifepristone and found that there were “significant levels of anti-progesterone activity . . . in the water of all but one of the nine sampling classes.” This led the authors to raise concerns that “the presence of mifepristone, or it’s biologically active metabolites in environmental water could affect wildlife and even human health.”
In announcing the new study, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said that “[f]or decades, I fought unsuccessfully to get EPA to conduct this kind of comprehensive testing . . . we are finally getting it done. EPA is going to search for pharmaceuticals, . . . and other contaminants that have gone undetected—and give Americans the truth about what is in their water.” story
See the Mother Jones version of this story.
So when water is mixed with wine at Mass could those drugs be in the chalice?
More and more young married couples are struggling with infertility. Shouldn’t all people be concerned about artificial contraceptives and abortifacients in our water, including those who are “pro-choice?”
And, I urge us not to be quick to (mis-)judge couples without children in our parishes. Many Catholic couples have shared that, while dealing with the burden of infertility, they receive looks and comments, as if they are childless by choice. Please pray for couples longing to conceive and bear children, but, so far, unable to do so. Understanding and compassion are necessary, and Christ-like.
It’s a shame this even needs to be said. No one should be judging couples who have no kids because it’s simply no one’s business. Also, maybe some couples practice NFP for variety of different reasons. Again, no one’s business. I personally wouldn’t care because I don’t answer to random parishioners, especially the ones who have forgotten that they shouldn’t be judging others if they don’t want to be judged.
As a retired chemistry teacher, I read years ago concerns regarding pesticides that may have some accidental structural resemblance to human sex hormones, but read few concerns about drugs deliberately designed to mimic human sex hormones, such as those used for contraceptives. If “going green” requires chastity, watch for some talking heads to explode.
I do not think it is a good idea to put water in plastic containers either. It is better to drink out of glass, metal or ceramic cups, or glass bottles or metal containers. I try not to freeze leftovers in plastic but in glass jars. It tells you how to do it safely online. If a two inch head space is left at the top, the glass container will not break from being frozen. Just make sure the glass container is clean and not cracked before you put the cooled mixture into it. I have not had any crack from being frozen. Put the date on the top of the lid of course, too.
Mason jars are best to use for two reasons, they are of tempered glass and straight up and down. If one uses glass jars with a shoulder, it is recommended that the two-inch head space be below the shoulder of the jar, or the glass might crack when expanded. I only freeze jars a few at a time, not a lot of them, for left overs that will be used soon. This is recommended because some plastics leach estrogen-like chemicals into the food. Do not eat if glass is cracked. It seems there is not much of anything that is not contaminated with something, Insecticides, hormone injections in meat, and on and on. Smoked meat is not good for us either, and it seems most of the breakfast ham on the market is smoked.