Pharmaceuticals in drinking water

[Jackal]

It's seems that pharmaceuticals are in our tap water and there are no regulations about pharmaceuticals in bottled water so that doesn't seem safe and reliable either. I'm not sure if any water purifiers can remove pharmaceuticals.

Basically, an elderly man takes his heart medication and a woman takes birth control pills. Then they pee. Tap water is recycled pee that has small amounts of these medications left in them. We drink it. Yuck! God knows what it's doing to us!

"(AP) -- A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Officials in Philadelphia say testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health."

(continued here)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/10/pharma.water1.ap/

[Winston]

Do you also believe that flouride in water is dangerous too? There is a heated debate about that. But I heard that even river water contains a little flouride, which actually helps clean your teeth too.

By the way, I added the word "nutrition" in the board title, since it's an important topic.

[Jackal]

Do you also believe that flouride in water is dangerous too? There is a heated debate about that. But I heard that even river water contains a little flouride, which actually helps clean your teeth too.

By the way, I added the word "nutrition" in the board title, since it's an important topic.

I wasn't aware that fluoride could be dangerous, but then again I know very little about chemistry and biology. Just the thought of drinking small amounts of drugs which are for health conditions that I don't even have kind of freaks me out, but we don't have many options here in america.

I once read in an article that New York City is supposed to have some of the healthiest drinking water in the US, but that seems strange to me. Maybe big cities have more funding for drinking water processing. I know that the tap water in Boston is very tasty.