Did you know? (2)

Did you know that as urban cities grow, in efforts to conserve and reuse water, the use of treated municipal wastewater increases drastically. This water is put through many steps of filtration and cleaning and are highly regulated for health by the federal government. A team of researchers found in 2004, that some organically synthesized molecules were making it through the filtration processes, and that in fact there were no regulations on these drugs by the government. Some of the drugs included antibiotics, mood changers, and sex hormones. The effects of these drugs in the drinking water are still not known at such low concentrations and as a mixture of all them reacting in the body.

Stackelberg, Paul E., et al. (2004). Persistence of pharmaceutical compounds and other organic wastewater contaminants in a conventional drinking-water-treatment plant. Science of the Total Environment. Issue 1-3, 99-113. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2004.03.015.