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meep:meep says, there's pretty much nothing that can be done about it since it's the usual "going through the human body" process that brings it into the water.
meep:Troubled Water -- Known known: Medicine in the Water. Known unknown: Bad for You?And like
Though surveys have detected over 80 pharmacological compounds in US waterways--including painkillers, blood-pressure and heart medications, birth control pills, anti-fungal agents, Prozac, Viagra, anti-seizure medications, steroids, nicotine byproducts and antibiotics—whether this actually means anything is a mystery. "Little is definitively known," says the EPA, "regarding any real hazard posed by trace concentrations."
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meep says, there's pretty much nothing that can be done about it since it's the usual "going through the human body" process that brings it into the water.
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Thanks for the link to the article.
For one thing, the usual practice is not to treat sewage and turn it right back around into the water pipes. Raw water for drinking purposes is pulled out of the ground or from upstream surface water sources, and treated further; after human consumption it is then treated again to remove as much waste as possible, then discharged downstream or into the ground again. In between, it gets "treated" by the earth and the sun.
What bottled water and aftermarket filters usually accomplish is to improve taste, which is independent of bacteriological or chemical contamination (and therefore safety). Ultrapure water actually has no taste, and thus is not much fun to drink. In fact, if it's also deionized, it's corrosive and dangerous to drink.
Seriously enough, remember that all drugs in common use are found in nature. They are refined and purified, but otherwise unchanged. Thus, this is more a case of mixing things across ecosystems. This is something that people and animals do all the time.
How is this different than eating imported foods, then throwing some of it out, or down the garbage disposal?