[mos6507]

It truly is the end of the world--because this is being reported by Fox News.

[Kristen]

This doesn't even mention what types of pharmaceuticals are in tap water.

[smallpoxgirl]

Right. As opposed to the time when people's drinking water didn't contain animal feces? When was that again? People have been drinking out of rivers for an awfully long time.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'R')ight. As opposed to the time when people's drinking water didn't contain animal feces? When was that again? People have been drinking out of rivers for an awfully long time.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'R')ight. As opposed to the time when people's drinking water didn't contain animal feces? When was that again?

[oswald622]

smallpoxgirl makes a good point. wine and beer are popular in large part because there was often no safe drinking water in antiquity.

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

I wonder if the water from a well in the same area would be any different? (I assume it would not have the chemicals that are considered by-products of water treatment) There are some nasty chemicals that are produced as a result of mixing chlorine and stuff during the purification process at the plant.

[Jotapay]

One of the local papers wrote a story on Austin's drinking water recently. I and several others wrote letters to the editor about what was actually in Austin's drinking water, like Barium (a heavy metal), hormones, pesticides, mercury, and how to protect yourself from these pollutants.

Then the local NPR station ran a news story on the issue. I'm shocked that they actually made the story.

These are some statements from the new article (Click the link and press play on the little flash icons). You have to listen to the whole article since it's audio.
http://kut.org/items/show/19304

Texas State rep Belinda Bolton: "Do you really want to be taking your neighbors' heart medication, Prozac, chemotherapy, birth control pills?"

Dr. Desmond Lawler, Environmental Engineer at UT: "Hormones and birth control products that end up in our drinking water can lead to improper sexual development."

Dr. John Richburg, professor of Pharmacology at UT: The toxicants in the water can cause infertility in males through the ingestion of drinking water by the mothers, as early as infancy.


The thing that gets me is that these people who pretend to be environmentalists around here (but who are really big-government control freaks) will freak out about CO2 emissions and push global laws and regulations and inspections of our homes, but not give one rats ass about sterilants or other pollutants in the drinking water. That's so messed up.

[2cher]

Making the world infertile sounds like the best damn news for the planet that I have ever heard.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'O')ne of the local papers wrote a story on Austin's drinking water recently. I and several others wrote letters to the editor about what was actually in Austin's drinking water, like Barium (a heavy metal), hormones, pesticides, mercury, and how to protect yourself from these pollutants.

Then the local NPR station ran a news story on the issue. I'm shocked that they actually made the story.

These are some statements from the new article (Click the link and press play on the little flash icons). You have to listen to the whole article since it's audio.
http://kut.org/items/show/19304

Texas State rep Belinda Bolton: "Do you really want to be taking your neighbors' heart medication, Prozac, chemotherapy, birth control pills?"

Dr. Desmond Lawler, Environmental Engineer at UT: "Hormones and birth control products that end up in our drinking water can lead to improper sexual development."

Dr. John Richburg, professor of Pharmacology at UT: The toxicants in the water can cause infertility in males through the ingestion of drinking water by the mothers, as early as infancy.


The thing that gets me is that these people who pretend to be environmentalists around here (but who are really big-government control freaks) will freak out about CO2 emissions and push global laws and regulations and inspections of our homes, but not give one rats ass about sterilants or other pollutants in the drinking water. That's so messed up.

[auscanman]

Sixstrings: No, a snap-on filter wouldn't remove these dissolved pharmaceuticals. The snap-on filters are only good for removing metals and insoluble or sparingly soluble materials. Even the most expensive filters won't remove pharmaceuticals and hormones. Only way to fully remove pharmaceuticals and hormones from tap water is by multiple/fractional distillation.

Reading all of this makes me happy to live somewhere where the tap water is pure as could be.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'A')ll in all, probably a good idea to play it safe and stop drinking tap water.. what's a good solution? Would one of those home type filters that snap on the faucet filter these meds out?

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('2cher', 'M')aking the world infertile sounds like the best damn news for the planet that I have ever heard.

[Novus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('2cher', 'M')aking the world infertile sounds like the best damn news for the planet that I have ever heard.

[culicomorpha]

Jotapay,

I think this is a much bigger problem than most people recognize. I did some research a few years back and it seemed that more or less, we have let the genie out of the bottle and there really isn't a simple way to put it back in.

As for good information resources, one name that kept coming up was Christian Daughton, an EPA scientist who has written a number of journal articles and texts on pharmaceuticals in water. His cv is at http://www.epa.gov/esd/bios/daughton.htm. His work led me to some others who were trying to do remediation on wastewater treatment facilities. If you can find some of these texts that deal with the problems of wastewater treatment, you might learn some useful lessons for protecting yourself.

I've looked at many of the filtering technologies, and they all leave something to be desired in my opinion. The craziest thing the municipalities do is to fluoridate the water. It's impossible to remove except with R.O. or distillation, both of which are wasteful processes. The water sources for many places are actually fairly good, as most municipalities at least try to protect their reservoirs and watersheds, but then they poison it with fluoride at a dose that is not that far below the toxic dose. Ground water can be better, or it can be very heavily contaminated. That's a crap shoot, but it seems like the number of known-polluted aquifers increases every year.

Regardless of the filtration type, it doesn't really help much since these technologies typically cannot filter fast enough for a shower without spending a lot of money on a whole-house-sized system. I came across a study a few years back - I'll see if I can find it again - that determined experimentally that the vast majority of exposure to volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) happened in the shower, and that only a small amount is absorbed via drinking water. So if you can't filter your shower, and your shower accounts for, say, 90% of your total daily exposure, then it doesn't matter if you filter your drinking water or not.

The complete irony in this dirty water business is that this is exactly the function served by wetlands, most of which were drained by the Army Corps of Engineers during the course of the 20th century so the land could be "developed." Now that the natural cleansing function of the wetlands has been removed from so much of the US, we are forced to find methods to replicate this function - and we will have to pay now for what was formerly provided by nature.

[OutOfGas]

We have a reverse osmosis system that we use for drinking and cooking. Purchased at Lowes for $ 150.00.
Filters (2) cost around $ 20.00 each and last approximately 6 months. The RO cartridge costs around $ 40.00 and lasts around a year.

Water quality is as good as bottled. We really noticed a difference in tea and coffee.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('culicomorpha', 'J')otapay,


The complete irony in this dirty water business is that this is exactly the function served by wetlands, most of which were drained by the Army Corps of Engineers during the course of the 20th century so the land could be "developed." Now that the natural cleansing function of the wetlands has been removed from so much of the US, we are forced to find methods to replicate this function - and we will have to pay now for what was formerly provided by nature.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('culicomorpha', 'T')he craziest thing the municipalities do is to fluoridate the water.

[mos6507]

Off topic posting deleted per COC 2.1.4.