Showers and baths expose us to drugs in the water supply

Our morning shower could be exposing us to prescription drugs such as antibiotics that have found their way into the public water system. The drugs are able to by-pass the usual filtration and disinfection processes, and they make their way into the public water system, and into lakes, rivers and oceans. Most of the drugs are flushed into the water system from human waste, but some are discarded, and flushed down toilets, say researchers from the Institute for Environmental Medicine at Turo University in Nevada. As a result, we can be exposed to pharmaceuticals every time we bathe, brush our teeth, or wash our clothes, says the institute’s Ilene Ruhoy. (Source: 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, March 24, 2010).

What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community