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The drugs people take ? antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, sex hormones ? are in your drinking water.

By Ann Althouse

A new study shows. How did they get there, you ask?

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.

This is so upsetting. Not just the drugs, but facing up to the reality that the water we drink has been pissed before. I know when we breathe, we're always breathing molecules that everyone in the history of the world has exhaled from their wet, spongy lungs. But is it not also the case that every molecule of water we drink has been pissed before ? many, many times?

Full post as published by Althouse on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).