The only thing I find surprising about this is that it's only just being reported now.
Discarded drugs, unmetabolized drugs, veterinary drugs, and possibly chemically active metabolites of drugs are being found in drinking water after being flushed down the toilet and "treated." Discarded drugs in landfills can also end up in drinking water.
Officials lie, plead ignorance, cite "post-9/11 security concerns," and disingenuously claim that their water meets regulatory standards (which don't actually address drugs).
I think a lot of consumers also don't realize that many of the bottled water brands they buy (thinking they're cleaner than tap water) are actually just some other city's tap water, which may or may not be safer than what comes out of their own faucets, regardless of whether it tastes better or not.
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Just try getting hold of a copy of your municipal water supply's quality report.
ReplyDeleteAnd once you do get it, it's mostly useless.
I get one with my bill, once a year. But a lot of it is suspiciously vague, and clearly they don't test for drugs because they're not legally required to.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that more bottled water is processed (after the tap, before the bottle) than I had thought.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there's little reason to believe that a significant amount of non-regulated substances are being removed unless the label specifically describes the processes that were used to clean the water. Even then, you have to know what these terms mean for the substances you're worried about.
Julie- I've seeing/hearing these stories for years. It's not exactly new news. Also I'mm not sure how people are still unaware that most bottled water comes from municiple water supplies. It is howevere treated. Usually only filtered though which may or may not remove any drugs. I'm amazed how well the beverage industry has market water. It's stunning to see how many bottles of water get sold every day. If you are going to buy water go for distilled. It's far more likely to remove any drugs than filtering.
ReplyDeleteThe probalems with testing are what ones do you test for and at what levels. The levels for the most part are not going to be problems for humans if the water supply and the waste stream are sufficiently separate. Potentially bigger problems for wildlife though.
I've suspected for a long time (every time I flush some unwanted drug down the toilet, which maybe I shouldn't do) that this stuff wasn't getting removed to the extent that I would like, but this is the first time I've read a news story with specifics.
ReplyDeleteMore consumers SHOULD know that most of the bottled water comes from muni sources, but unless they make an effort to be informed I doubt that they do. I'm still shocked by how few people read labels carefully, and I don't know how many really know what "distilled," "spring," "mineral," "purified," etc. mean, or specific language to look for on the bottle.
I haven't bought water in ages. Last time I did get the little bottles, it was the store brand. I didn't use it much, and after sitting around for a few months it tasted just like the bottle, i.e. nasty!
Were on a well and have had the water tested. It's great! Maybe I should start bottling it?
ReplyDeleteAs far as bottles goes. i used to buy it when we lived in maynard because the water tasted like the water tower. This was before Britas were around. But I used to buy the big gallons store brand distilled.
I've seen reports on where that water comes from at least a half a dozen times on the local news and in papers and npr. Ditto for the drugs in the water supply stories (although I do tend to get a lot of environmental mags so I probably saw it there first).
My biggest problem with the store bought water is the tons and tons of plastic it encourages people to use.
I had read once not to flush your drugs down the toilet (because we'll grow giant mutant sewer rats?) and so I now throw them away. I wouldn't do that if I had young children or pets, though.
ReplyDeleteI drink a lot of water and it is disturbing to think I'm getting "free drugs." I wonder if they have any idea what the effects on pregant women are, for example. I do have a child with A.S. and another with an autoimmune disease.