Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water - How Do Pharmaceutical Drugs Get in Drinking Water?
How do pharmaceutical drugs get in drinking water? That's has been a  common question since headlines like "AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking  Water" appeared. In actuality there are many sources of the  contamination. First, there are human beings. You might think that  when you take a medication, all of it is absorbed by the body. That is  not the case. A great deal of the medications pass through the body  without being metabolized and are excreted, along with other waste  products.  In order to fully answer the question of how do  pharmaceutical drugs get in drinking water, you have to understand that  at least some of the waters flowing out of your taps are "recycled"  wastewaters. Wastewater treatment facilities need to be state of the art  in order to remove all of the traces of medications and other synthetic  and organic chemicals that are present in raw sewage. Since the  AP probe finds drugs in drinking water samples taken from around the  country, obv...