Isn’t it bad enough that our drinking water is polluted with fluoride, chlorine, industrial chemicals, and pesticides? Appartently not!

Several recent studies have found pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water – from antipsychotics to sex hormones. An Associated Press investigation found pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million people in the United States.

When people take drugs, some of the pharmaceuticals pass through their body and exit in urine, which is flushed down the toilet. This water is treated before it enters rivers and lakes, and it’s treated again before it becomes drinking water, but water treatment plants do not remove all pharmaceuticals.

EPA scientist Christian Daughton explained, “People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that’s not the case.”

Then there’s the problem of hospitals and other health care facilities that flush old medicine down the toilet, as if the toilet makes the drugs magically disappear. It’s not magical, folks. It’s just a crapper.

Bovine drugs – such as the antibiotics given to cows – also end up in drinking water supplies. (Cows have to pee, too!)

According to the EPA, sewage treatment systems are simply not engineered to remove pharmaceutical drugs. In fact, the highest concentration of pharmaceuticals in drinking water tends to be near sewage treatment plans (suggesting that most of the drugs enter water from human waste).

Of course, the level of exposure to drugs in drinking water is low, but over the years, it can add up to cause harm. For instance, sex hormones can interfere with reproduction and development, and psyciatric medications can alter behavior, even at a low levels of chronic exposure. And antibiotics in the water only contribute to the development of more “super bugs.”

“These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations,” explains Dr. John Sumpter of Brunel University. “That’s what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects.”

An under sink reverse osmosis water purifier is the best way to eliminate pharmaceuticals from your water.