I once worked with someone who said he worked with whatever company develops filtering systems for tap water in this area (he was on addy and talking my eardrum numb, so no, I retained no specifics that would help to validate my or his testimonies). He told me that by drinking a glass of water, I was effectively drinking a cocktail of antidepressants and other prescription drugs that were flushed down the tiolet and not successfully filtered.

Any thoughts?

1/3/2009 3:08:19 AM

I heard there was enough flouride in tap water that you don't need toothpaste to brush your teeth effectively.

1/3/2009 3:09:52 AM

i heard this by dumping a bottle of mouthwash down the drain that if I drank water 3 days later I could wash my mouth with water and it would make them clean.



SO FRESH N SO CLEAN

1/3/2009 3:14:11 AM

That's the kind of comment that made me make this thread; from whom did you hear the fluoride comments?

1/3/2009 3:16:42 AM

WTF

so, they can filter out SHIT but not prozac?

1/3/2009 3:22:46 AM

I've heard it from multiple sources, but most recently from my mom I think. Apparently there's some girl who actually doesn't use toothpaste and has clean teeth.

A google search couldn't find anything about that case, unfortunately.

1/3/2009 3:23:06 AM

Dentist's, Ive heard the same thing

There's a commercial that plays here that tells people not to toss their pills down the toilet because it affects the drinking water

so your theory = TRUTH

1/3/2009 3:24:29 AM

this is pretty old...read an article about it in like july

1/3/2009 3:25:33 AM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-tap-water_N.htm

Quote :

"People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue."

if this is true, then this is straight absurd that the medicine can survive YOUR BODY, THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT, THE NATURAL DIFFUSION IN AN ENTIRE RESERVOIR/RIVER/LAKE, AND THE WATER TREATMENT PLANTS

like, "what the fuck are we putting in our bodies willingly" absurd

----

this would be an interesting spin on the "vaccines cause autism" meme

i'd ALMOST be willing to get on board with an "overmedicated tap water causes autism" study, if these figures were one decimal point higher (we're still talking PPB or PPT, but if it were PPM i might be more concerned)

[Edited on January 3, 2009 at 3:33 AM. Reason : YOU DOWN WITH PPT? yeah you know me]

1/3/2009 3:32:06 AM

there must be some really shitty water treatment plants

1/3/2009 3:34:51 AM

Many cities fluoridate their water on purpose to help prevent tooth decay; for more info, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation.

Aside from fluoride, many pharmaceuticals do end up in municipal water supplies in trace amounts; those that have received the most press are hormones like estrogen from birth control pills, pain-killers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and anti-depressants. Many others have also been found.

There's not a lot that you can do about it, though. Municipal water treatment plants aren't able to screen out everything, and neither are home water filters or bottled water companies; about 40% of bottled water is just bottled tap water anyway. In general, tap water is still much safer and less wasteful than bottled since it is subject to more frequent and rigorous inspection than bottled water (the EPA regulates municipal supplies and tests hundreds of times a month, whereas bottled water is only tested by the FDA if it's crossing state lines to be sold, and only then tested once a week).

1/3/2009 3:41:22 AM

as an interesting aside, psilocybin is one of those substances that is excreted unaltered for the most part

1/3/2009 3:45:12 AM

I was going to try to find that usatoday article. I remember reading it and thinking that it was pretty interesting.

1/3/2009 3:54:20 AM

Quote :

"Fluoridation of water is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face."

1/3/2009 7:37:13 AM

Meanwhile Metallica rocks on very hard... been up all night listening to old stuff and now I am very ready to buy their newest album.

1/3/2009 8:06:07 AM

tap water will fuck you up i tell you what

1/3/2009 9:57:37 AM

It's extremely hard to get pharmaceuticals out of the water.

This has gotten to be a big problem for some fish in rivers, specifically all the excess estrogen floating around out there.

There have been reports of male fish growing ovaries and actually ovulating.

1/3/2009 9:59:48 AM

A National Assessment of Tap Water Quality
More than 140 contaminants with no enforceable safety limits found in the nation's drinking water.

http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/findings.php


North Carolina
http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/statereports/statereport.php?state=NC

1/3/2009 10:15:17 AM

So, do individuals have a "right to trash"?

1/3/2009 10:21:39 AM

I was going to come in and regulate, but I see a few others have already started that.

1.) SR was spot on about the Fluoride addition in WTP's. However, the claims about there being so much that you don't need to brush your teeth - well those are probably a little far fetched. There's enough fluoride in the water to just have a small effect on tooth health.

2.) SR was spot on about pharmaceuticals as well. These do end up in lakes, rivers, groundwaters, and drinking water. And they come from industrial waste, human waste, animal waste, and flushing these items (the worst thing you can do). However, the claims that the concentrations are so high that they have effects are suspect, at least in drinking water, and to be honest, in natural waters, it's a rare occurrence to see high levels, still. WWTP's/WTP's do have a tough time getting rid of pharmaceuticals for a few reasons:
a.) Until recently no one knew/paid attention to pharmaceuticals in natural waters and drinking waters. Thus if you didn't know about it, you probably wouldn't be treating it.
b.) The removal mechanism. Pharmaceuticals would have to be removed in one of 2 ways. Filtration or precipitation. Filtration would require hella filters (probably the same filters used in desalinization plants) which are typically not preferred due to clogging and cost. Precipitation is doable, however, you must consider how many chemicals/compounds in the the water, what their concentration is, the pH, and so on. Then you have to add in a step in your WT or WWT to precipitate out all of these chemicals, not to mention, many precipitation chambers would probably be required in order to have the right conditions to precipitate out the targeted substance.

3. Guitar was right about safety limits. AFAIK, there are no EPA/State regulations on pharmaceutical related compounds. That's the first step (other than research).

So this doesn't mean that WWTP/WTP's are shitty/aren't doing their job. Pharmaceuticals have never been seen as a problem until now, thus weren't treated for, and still haven't raised enough alarms to warrant treatment, though that is probably changing as we speak.

[Edited on January 3, 2009 at 10:38 AM. Reason : .]

1/3/2009 10:37:22 AM

holy shit

wdprice3 just won this thread

marko, please lock this shit now

1/3/2009 10:54:08 AM

lol, wut?

1/3/2009 10:55:37 AM

so i met this lady a while back that was certifiably batshit crazy about this stuff. she was absolutely convinced that vaccines cause autism, pharmaceuticals in the tap water are responsible for cancer and homelessness (i still don't see how she made that connection), and that cell phones interrupt your aura with negative energy and that's why people are depressed. i asked her what an aura is, and she matter of factly stated that its an energy field that surrounds you and it can be controlled with crystals or something like that. the scary part is she claimed to be a doctor was working on her residency at emory. and while never having gone to china, she also claimed to have a PhD in eastern medicine from the University of Hong Kong.

1/3/2009 11:07:05 AM

Quote :

"she was absolutely convinced that vaccines cause autism"

people like this (and the propaganda that perpetuates this rumor) are the reason there is a growing smallpox epidemic in this country

1/3/2009 11:08:54 AM