I'm no longer a fan of bottled water and that isn't even a safe alternative, this article points out why. So cross out that as an viable option for tap water. Here's a few bits taken from the article:
Quote:
-Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
-Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
-Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
-A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.
-The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
-Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Arizona
The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.
Oh...and this:
Quote:
Human waste isn't the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized. A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.
Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.
And of course, the officials think we're all too dumb to handle the truth about our drinking water.
Quote:
Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.
Just read the entire article.
Note: not sure where to place this, but I thought that General Health would be a good place..if not, please move to the proper forum!
Residues of birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and a host of other compounds are finding their way into the nation’s waterways, and they have public health and environmental officials in a regulatory quandary.
On the one hand, there is no evidence the traces of the chemicals found so far are harmful to human beings. On the other hand, it would seem cavalier to ignore them.
The pharmaceutical and personal care products, or P.P.C.P.’s, are being flushed into the nation’s rivers from sewage treatment plants or leaching into groundwater from septic systems. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, researchers have found these substances, called “emerging contaminants,” almost everywhere they have looked for them.
Most experts say their discovery reflects better sensing technology as much as anything else. Still, as Hal Zenick of the agency’s office of research and development put it in an e-mail message, “there is uncertainty as to the risk to humans.”
But, here's a nifty thing to do and this article mentions it - find out if this is done in your area:
Quote:
For example, Clark County, Wash., has a program in which residents with unwanted or expired drugs can take so-called controlled substances, like prescription narcotics, to police stations or sheriffs’ offices for disposal. They can drop noncontrolled drugs at participating pharmacies, and 80 percent of the pharmacies in the county participate.
Since our local water supply comes from an aquifer, we have a significant program to protect underground water for the reasons mentioned but I don't know of any programs to drop off unused drugs! That would be good but perhaps not convenient enough.
Wow, thats a worry.
All my water comes from the roof of my house, (After it falls from the sky)
so the dust, bugs and bird shit in my water is obviously nothing to worry about.
Just adds to the flavour
You can somehow rig your tank so the first few mm doesn't go into the tank but rather washes the roof and all that. They once clean you start filling the tank. Not sure how but thats what my old man did. Depends on your total rainfall and if you can afford alittle wastage.
You can somehow rig your tank so the first few mm doesn't go into the tank but rather washes the roof and all that. They once clean you start filling the tank. Not sure how but thats what my old man did. Depends on your total rainfall and if you can afford alittle wastage.
yep, called a first flush diverter, its on the list of things to do.
I think you lose the first few hundred litres
I couldn't pull up the original article. Why is bottled water no longer an alternative? I thought the reverse osmosis (whatever that actually does) pulled out all the nasty stuff?
The other day I heard on the news that the amount of "drugs" in the water supply is so minute that it really has no effect on the body whatsoever. I don't like hearing that I'm exposing myselk to unwanted chemicals but the truth is that it's really nor harmful at all. Just my opinion though.
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I couldn't pull up the original article. Why is bottled water no longer an alternative? I thought the reverse osmosis (whatever that actually does) pulled out all the nasty stuff?
In Australia the bottled water industry isn't regulated and the public drinking water (or whatever you call it) is. You can claim or put anything you want into bottled, so its not a real better alternative.
Drugs in Your Water Supply...
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